South Hobart much too good for Eagles

Photos (Top to Bottom): Eagles' Jacob Malakoff chases South's David Cooper, who has the ball; Jacob Malakoff gets in a header ahead of South's Shae Hickey; Eagles' Matthew Rybak with a clearing header; South's Julius Ross takes on Jacob Kavanagh as Alex Leszczynski looks on; South's Jonathon Ladic takes a tumble over Leszczynski; Ladic is surprised by the ball which was missed by Leszczynski; South's Ricky Eaves gets in a shot; South's David Cooper clears the ball; Eagles' Cormac Collins challenges for a header with Jonathon Ladic.

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League, South Hobart, Saturday, 18 April 2009
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South Hobart 3 (Ladic 26, Kanakaris 59, Eaves 79)
New Town Eagles 1 (McKeown 88)

HT: 1-0 Att: 120 Ref: D Gadd
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South Hobart: Kruijver - Scott, D Brown, Heerey, Cooper (Wardle 81) - Hickey (Bladel 79), Ladic, Eaves, Kanakaris - Ross (Pennicott 72), Abbott [Substitute not used: McGoldrick] [Coach: K Morton]

New Town Eagles: Soszynski - Clark, Wass, Rybak (Gordon 46), Page - Malakoff, Collins, Leszczynski, Kavanagh (Minty 59) - Vernon (Grabek 73), McKeown [Substitute not used: Shackcloth] [Coach: G Krambousanos]
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South Hobart stayed top of the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League ladder with this comfortable 3-1 win over New Town Eagles, who are second-last.

A minute’s silence was observed before the game in memory of Eagles’ Adam Shackcloth’s uncle, who passed away during the week.

Eagles did well to contain South Hobart for 25 minutes, but they then fell behind to a goal by Jonathon Ladic.

Ladic scored with a shot that had little, if any, back-lift and it seemed to confuse keeper Michael Soszynski, who seemed to start to go one way before hesitating and then being caught flat-footed as the ball sneaked in at his right-hand post.

The move had been started down the right by Liam Scott, and it was Kanakaris, making his debut for South after signing from Hobart Olympic during the week, who passed the ball inside to Ladic, who was just outside the penalty area.

South continued to threaten for the remainder of the half, with Julius Ross shooting wide on the half-hour, and Ricky Eaves shooting over the bar from a good position after a build-up involving Ross and Scott.

Eagles’ solitary chance came in the 40th minute when Cormac Collins’s corner from the right found Adam McKeown at the far post, but his header was smothered.

Eagles replaced Matthew Ryback with Alex Gordon at the interval and they moved Alex Leszczynski into a defensive role.

Kanakaris made it 2-0 for South in the 59th minute when he converted Scott’s low cross from the byline on the right from close range.

Soszynski was so incensed that he muttered some words at the assistant referee, presumably about Scott having been off-side, and was sent off by Mr Gadd.

Craig Minty came on in goal, while Jacob Kavanagh was the unfortunate out-field player to be sacrificed.

In the 71st minute, David Abbott was put through on goal, but his shot came back off the left-hand post.

Four minutes later, Kanakaris shot wide as South sought to increase their lead.

Hugo Bladel came on for Shae Hickey in the 79th minute and, with virtually his first touch, sent Scott away down the right.

Scott played the ball through to Eaves, who neatly eluded Chris Wass inside the box and beat Minty at the near post to make it 3-0.

Eagles pulled a goal back in the 88th minute when McKeown beat Sam Kruijver to Jacob Malakoff’s pass to the edge of the box and just got a toe to the ball to slot it home.

But, it was far too little and far too late for the visitors to alter the outcome.

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• South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said:

“A load of crap.

“Not the prettiest of games.

“In the end, we got three points and I think we deserved that over the 90 minutes.

“The sending off of the goalkeeper obviously changed the mood of the game as well.

“But, White Eagles play with a good spirit and a good determination and they have some exciting young players and I wish them all the best for the remainder of the season.

“We, now, I think, have turned the corner.

“Hughie Ludford will come back next week, Gary Upton will come back next week, hopefully, and then I think we can start to threaten teams again obviously try and get a bit more settled as a unit and everybody working together again.”

• New Town Eagles coach, George Krambousanos, said:

“I thought it was a good game, actually.

“A bit disappointing with the decision of the goalkeeper. I think he was taken off because he swore. I don’t know if it was direct to the referee or not, but anyway, the referee has to make a decision and he made his decision.

“I’ll accept that and the club will, too.

“I honestly think we still could have got back into the game and, like every week, we seem to score that late goal. We seem to come over teams, so we really don’t know what could have happened.

“I don’t think they played their normal game. They lost a little bit of flow.

“I think we’re improving slowly and I think we showed that today even though we lost.”
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STATISTICS

SOUTH HOBART NEW TOWN EAGLES
20 Goal Attempts 5
9 Shots on Target 4
8 Corners 3
13 Fouls Committed 12
0 Off-Sides 1
1 (D Brown 51) Yellow Cards 1 (Wass 60)
0 Red Cards 1 (Soszynski 59)

South Hobart:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Kanakaris 4 2
Hickey 3 1
Ross 2 1
Eaves 4 1
Abbott 5 3
Ladic 2 1

New Town Eagles:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Leszczynski 1 1
McKeown 2 2
Gordon 1 1
Clark 1 0