Photo: Kingborough Lions Starting XI v New Town Eagles
Forestry Tasmania Premier League, Saturday, 21 March 2009, Lightwood Park
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Kingborough Lions United 6 (Andrews 26, White 34, Palmer 72, Freeman 74, 78, 83)
New Town Eagles 3 (Collins 35, Gordon 81, Leszczynski 84 pen)
HT: 2-1 Att: 120 Ref: B Kopra
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Kingborough Lions United (4-4-2): Voss - Palmer, Iseli, D Pearce, Wells - R Hinkley (Bevan 73), Marchioli, Andrews (Greg Freeman 67), Schuth - White, McDonald (Bremner 63) [Substitute not used: Leamey] [Coach: Geoff Freeman]
New Town Eagles (4-5-1): A Savage (C Minty 42) - Westland (Ferrall 46), Rybak, Wass, Page - Vernon, Malakoff (Gordon 59), Leszczysnki, Clark, McKeown - Collins [Substitute not used: Grabek] [Coach: G Krambousanos]
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Kingborough Lions United have now scored 10 goals in their two opening league matches, but they have also conceded seven.
New Town Eagles had them on the back foot for at least half an hour in the first half, but they were unable to take advantage of some poor defending by the home side.
Eagles won many of the aerial battles in attack and the Kingborough rearguard was under a lot of pressure in that first 30 minutes.
Kingborough goalkeeper Jason Voss’s distribution was generally poor, and he apeared annoyed with himself. He should probably have held Cormac Collins’s shot which resulted in the opening goal.
But then again, two of Voss’s clearances up-field resulted in goals for his team, and one can’t complain about that.
He also made a crucial save with his foot when Alex Leszczynski broke through and appeared certain to score in a one-on-one situation.
Kingborough relied on the long ball, and it eventually began to take effect, although some of their close inter-passing play was also damaging to Eagles.
Eagles suffered a major blow just before the break when they lost goalkeeper Andrew Savage, who snapped an Achilles tendon. He did the same thing, but to the other leg, two seasons ago.
Play was stopped for several minutes while he received treatment and he was eventually taken to hospital by ambulance.
The incident was bizarre. Charles White had played Marcello Marchioli through on the left and he was sprinting towards goals with only the keeper to beat.
Savage came off his line but suddenly fell to the ground, in obvious agony. Marchioli kept running at goal and, just before he could stroke the ball into an empty net, Mr Kopra blew his whistle and stopped play.
It was a controversial incident. Should play have been stopped or should Marchioli have been awarded a goal? He put the ball into the net a split second after the referee’s whistle blew, to the annoyance of the Kingborough players and supporters, who felt they should have had a goal.
Speaking after the match, Mr Kopra said that he knew instantly that Savage was badly injured and so he stopped play. That is the referee’s prerogative. Another referee might have been a fraction slower with the whistle, and the goal would have stood.
Kingborough had the first decent chance of the match when, in the 9th minute, White released Joel Schuth on the left, but his low shot just missed the far post.
In the 17th minute, Matt Page crossed from the left for Eagles and Voss spilled the ball and conceded a corner.
From the corner, Chris Wass’s header was deflected out for another corner.
In the 26th minute, a counter-attack by Kingborough saw Tom McDonald beat Savage to the ball on the left of the box, but Matthew Rybak intervened and conceded a corner.
Ross Hinkly took the corner from the left and Brett Andrews flicked the ball home with his head to give the Lions the lead.
A minute later, a great ball out of defence by Rybak found Leszczynki, who beat Marc Iseli on the right of the box but fired his shot just wide of the far post.
White went close on the half-hour for Kingborough when he nodded Hinkley’s corner wide.
The next minute, Savage did well at the near post to turn Hinkley’s shot out for a corner, from which Schuth hit the side-netting after the corner was not cleared.
In the 32nd minute, Tom McDonald was through on the Eagles goal, but the advancing keeper did just enough to force McDonald to shoot wide.
It was 2-0 in the 34th minute, again after a corner by Hinkley. His corner was nodded back out and wide, where Hinkley got a second bite of the cherry. His cross this time, was from a much better angle, and White headed home.
Within a minute, Eagles pulled a goal back. Kingborough could only flick a corner on to the far side of the box, where Collins gained possession, cut inside and scored with a low drive from the left, through Voss’s grasp and just inside the far post.
Then came the incident involving Savage and 18-year-old Craig Minty took over in goal just minutes before the interval.
Eagles also brought on Nick Ferrall at half-time for Josh Westland.
Eight minutes into the second period, Leszczynski smacked a marvellous free-kick against the underside of the crossbar. The ball rebounded and hit Wass, but he didn’t know anything about it and it ricocheted over the bar and out of play for a goal-kick.
In the 59th minute, Kingborough were desperately unlucky not to increase their lead when Marchioli put White away on the left and he fired against the far post.
Two minutes later, Voss saved from Leszczynski with his foot, while at the other end, McDonald blazed just wide of the target.
Greg Freeman replaced the injured Andrews in the 67th minute and thatw as to prove decisive.
In the 72nd minute, substitute Marcus Bremer went on a fine run down the right and knocked the ball inside to Michael Palmer, who turned inside the box and struck home Kingborough’s third goal.
Freeman grabbed his first goal in the 74th minute after fine play by fellow substitute Ryan Bevan t make it 4-1.
Four minutes later, Marchioli’s free-kick from the left was cleverly dummied by White and the unmarked Freeman tapped home goal number five.
Alex Gordon, who had replaced Jacob Malakoff just short of the hour mark, slotted home James Vernon’s low right-wing cross in the 81st minute to pull a goal back for Eagles.
But Freeman restored the four-goal buffer and completed his hat-trick two minutes later, running unopposed on to a long clearance by Voss and beating Minty easily from inside the box.
Eagles were awarded a penalty six minutes from the end when Wells brought down Andrew Clark. Leszczynski despatched it comfortably to make it 6-3.
Minty produced two excellent saves in the closing minutes to deny Freeman, who also headed Bevan’s cross over the bar when a seventh goal seemed certain.
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- Kingborough Lions United coach, Geoff Freeman, said:
“There were a lot of positives. Going forward, I think we created a lot of opportunities again and it’s nice to be taking opportunities.
“A little bit concerned about conceding goals, but having said that, when you conceded 5-1 and 6-2 it’s not as bad as in the past. Even last week, we conceded when we were only one in front, or whatever it is.
“But, we’re playing well. There’s still a lot to improve on and that’s probably a promising thing.
“We’re delighted with the goals we’re scoring. But, we might have scored ten, but we’ve conceded seven.”
- New Town Eagles coach, George Krambousanos, said:
“What we did at training, I honestly thought we could win this one.
“Give them credit. They played good soccer and scored a lot of goals. We scored three. That’s nine goals. That’s unbelievable.
“We lost our keeper, but you can’t blame the young lad who went in just before half-time.
“A bit disappointed, but you must give credit to Kingborough. They did very, very well and they deserved their win.”
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STATISTICS
KINGBOROUGH NEW TOWN EAGLES
23 Goal Attempts 18
11 Shots on Target 10
9 Corners 8
11 Fouls Committed 10
2 Off-Sides 2
3 (White 51, Hinkley 55, Bremner 76) Yellow Cards 1 (Leszczynski 76)
0 Red Cards 0
Kingborough Lions United:
PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Schuth 2 0
Wells 1 0
Andrews 2 2
White 3 2
Hinkley 1 1
McDonald 3 0
Marchioli 2 1
Iseli 2 1
Palmer 2 1
Freeman 4 3
Bremner 1 0
New Town Eagles:
PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Wass 3 1
McKeown 3 2
Vernon 4 2
Westland 1 0
Leszczynski 4 3
Ferrall 1 0
Gordon 2 2
3 comments:
Terrible news about Sav's latest injury. All the best mate. There's not many of your former team mates left at the Strikers but we wish you all the best with your rehabilitation.
It's a bit hard to say without having been there but I don't have a problem with the referee stopping play as soon as the injury occurred. I would think a snapped achilies would be more than a little uncomfortable and everyone would've known it was serious.
In saying that, in the heat of the moment if I was in that situation & the referee stopped play I would probably be a little annoyed too!!
In reviewing the decision you'd have to say the correct call was made.
While a few of the supporters were annoyed at the time and in the confusion, the players were fairly comfortable with the decision, Saz is a great competitor to be fair would have got to the ball first if his injury had not occurred, so no harm done and definately the right decision. Apparently the operation did go well and next week he may know the long term prognosis. As far as I am aware he has hung up the boots and gloves for good this time though.
Very sad to hear about any injuries as serious as that especially when the player has already suffered before.
Re the referee blowing incident, i recall a similar incident in the EPL where the great Paolo Di Canio i think won a fair play award for stopping play when possibly about to score when the opposition keeper went down.
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