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Spirit 0, Northern 0; March 26th
Southland’s Spirit FC and
visitors Northern from Dunedin battled to a nil-all draw in the opening
Footballsouth Premier League game at the ILT Football Turf in Invercargill on
Saturday.
"Norbert v Egbert"
Northern's Norbert Dreyer left and Spirit's Egbert Koning challenge for the
ball.
It came as no real surprise that
on a day dominated by defensive effort each club chose defenders, Stephen Black
Spirit FC, and Norbert Dreyer Northern, as their Players of the day.
The game opened brightly enough with both teams attempting to break through
early and gain some domination.
Spirit's Carl Henderson attempts to move away from
Northern's Craig Wilkinson
As the game see-sawed up and down the turf it soon became obvious that the
central defenders of each team held the key to the outcome and in that score
Black and Dreyer fully deserved their award for the day.
They were ably supported though by strong games from Aaron Whitaker and Brendon
Lloyd for Spirit and by Craig Wilkinson and captain Cam McPhail for Northern.
Spirit newcomer Andrew Ridden came close to putting his team ahead midway
through the first half when he fired in a shot that had some power but which
Northern goalkeeper Tom Galloway watched whistle past the post and out of play.
In sheer frustration at not breaking down the Northern defence Barry Gardiner
when given space had three attempts from long range but they never really
threatened the Northern keeper’s domain.
Barry Gardiner on one of his trademark runs through the
Northern defence.
Ref Dean Seager's keeping up well though.
Barry Gardiner stopped on one
of his trademark runs through the Northern defence.
Ref Dean Seager's still keeping up though.
Spirit went to half time break happy that they were marginally ahead in possession and territorial advantage.
Much of the same was the recipe
in the second stanza although Northern came into the game more and spurred on by
skipper McPhail began to make life difficult for Spirit.
Gardiner was forced into substitutions which upset the team rhythm to some
extent and then local supporters had a heart-stopping moment when Northern’s
Dave Henderson managed to steer the ball wide of the goal when steering it in
seemed the easier thing to do.
Henderson (far right), ball on its way past (second from left)
"Oh dear" said Coach Brooks....
It seemed inappropriate that the respective coaches called on their players to
shut the game down with ten minutes to go when most spectators were convinced it
was already shut down.
As was expected AMP South Old Boys convincingly defeated Gore Wanderers 5-1 to
ensure they won the Waihopai Cup for Senior men in Southland Football’s pre
season competition.
Old Boys needed only a point
from the game to secure the title and their task was made easier when Gore’s
goalkeeper handled the ball outside his penalty area and received an automatic
red card for the offence.
Brandon deGarnham with 2, Scott Mackenzie, Bob Cox and Scott Kiddey netted for
the winners while Norris Chand replied for Gore.
In other games Computer Supplyline Thistle with goals from Richie Sutherland 2
and Keith Hawkes beat EWL Southland Waihopai 3-nil
and Southend
United accounted for Eyeview Queens Park 4-3.
Southend’s goals came from Gerard Anderson, Jason McMath, Andrew Ridden and
Jannick Ferrier-Kerr while Park’s came from Domnik Katvick 2 and Ibrahim Munu.