Friday, May 15, 2009

Glenorchy Knights move into third place with victory over reigning champions

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League, KGV Park, Friday, 15 May 2009
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Glenorchy Knights 3 (Marsh 20, Hope 88, Koroma 90)
South Hobart 1 (Ross 73)

HT: 1-0 Att: 130 Ref: S Collins
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Glenorchy Knights: Tatnell - Wiggins, Holmes, Green, Lawler - Sherman, Fielding, Marsh (Hope 75), Roberts - Clay, Koroma [Substitutes not used: Daniels, Vavoulas, Peter] [Coach: E Kelly]

South Hobart: Moncur - Pennicott, Ludford, Cooper, Scott - Abbott (Ross 60), Hickey, Upton, Ladic, Eaves - Kanakaris [Substitutes not used: Otte, Di Falco, McGoldrick] [Coach: K Morton]
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Glenorchy Knights moved from fifth to third spot on the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League ladder as a result of this 3-1 win over second-placed South Hobart.

It was the Knights second win over South in successive weekends. They beat South 1-0 last weekend in the Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy State-wide competition.

South had gone 313 minutes without scoring, until Julius Ross broke the goal drought after 73 minutes of this match to make it 1-1.

But, it wasn’t enough to take the three points, despite South dominating possession.

Ninety-nine per cent of the Knights goal-kicks, and nearly all of goalkeeper Alex Tatnell’s distributions, went to South Hobart players.

Only late in the match, when Tatnell allowed Alex Holmes to take the goal-kicks because of a leg injury, did Knights players gradually start to get on to the end of these clearances.

South were superior in midfield, winning most tackles and passing well, while the South defence stood firm against rare Knights counter-attacks.

But, South lacked penetration in attack most of the time and got few shots on target.

David Abbott was having a wretched game on the right and things did not improve much when he switched to the left.

His first touch was often clumsy and, when he did manage to control the ball, he ran in circles and gave the ball away with wild passes.

Kostas Kanakaris looked slow and missed two good headers which should have been goals.

South were simply unable to convert their overall superiority into goals - they earned 11 corners to the Knights’ one - and they paid for slack defending and poor goalkeeping in the end.

Mark Moncur might have kept out the first goal from Jackson Marsh, and he committed himself unnecessarily for the third, allowing Amadu Koroma to round him and roll the ball home.

He almost conceded another to Koroma with a fluffed clearance, but the Knights striker fired wide with an open goal beckoning.

South Hobart were in total control for the opening 19 minutes, and yet it was the Knights who took the lead in the 20th minute.

South Hobart played the ball out from the back, but former Knights player Shae Hickey failed to control Gary Upton’s pass and lost possession in midfield to Josh Fielding.

Fielding took the ball to the edge of the box before laying it into the path of Jackson Marsh, who drove it low and inside Moncur’s right-hand post from 20 metres. Moncur appeared to get both hands to the ball but could not keep it out on the slippery surface.

In the 25th minute, Knights were fortunate to clear Abbott’s corner from the right, the ball almost sneaking in at the near post.

On the half-hour, David Cooper missed a relatively simple chance, heading Liam Scott’s deep cross from the left, after a corner, over the bar when unmarked.

Two minutes later, Alex Holmes slid to cut out a pass but succeeded only in playing the ball to Upton’s feet. He crossed to the far post, but Abbott could not reach the ball.

Fourteen minutes into the second half, Abbott’s right-wing cross found Kanakaris unmarked at the far post, but instead of hitting the target, he headed tamely across the face of goal.

Ross replaced Abbott on the hour and looked very busy in an advanced role.

Ross was unlucky in the 64th minute when Kanakaris unlocked the Knights defence on the left and cut the ball back from the byline, but the pass was too soft and the Knights cleared before Ross could get in a shot.

The combination between the two strikers bore fruit in the 73rd minute, however, as Ricki Eaves released Kanakaris down the left and, with two Knights defenders keeping their distance, Kanakaris was able to cross unopposed for Ross to glance home a header and make it 1-1.

Ten minutes from the end. Moncur almost gifted the Knights a goal when he cut out a through-ball but failed to clear and instead lost possession.

The ball fell to Koroma on the left, who had a clear sight of goal and a comfortable shooting angle. But, Koroma stroked the ball across the face of goal and it rolled harmlessly beyond the far post.

In the 87th minute, Fielding took the ball down the right and got to the byline before flashing over a cross. Koroma missed the ball, which carried to Tom Sherman, but he blazed wide of the target.

South were proving vulnerable to the counter-attack in the closing minutes as South threw everything into attack.

Two minutes from the end, Scott fouled Koroma in midfield and Jade Clay’s free-kick found substitute James Hope on the left of the box, where, unopposed, he beat Moncur with an accurate header to put the home side in front 2-1.

In the 90th minute, a Knights goal-kick found Fielding on the right and he played the ball down the line for the speedy Koroma.

Moncur and Hugh Ludford were caught in two minds and it was Moncur who raced from his goal in a vain attempt to intercept the pass. Koroma simply rounded the keeper and stroked the ball home to make it 3-1.

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  • Glenorchy Knights coach, Eamonn Kelly, said:

“It was a good win.

“I thought we thoroughly deserved our win.

“We showed people we can put three games together.

“I think we’ve turned the corner. I’m not saying we’re going to set the world on fire, but we’re starting to play good football.

“The young lads that are coming through are starting to do what we want them to do and what they’re good at.

“When we play football, we look good, and I think we can destroy anybody.

“When we start to be lone soldiers and lone rangers, then we start to lose control.

“Consistency is what we’ve been asking them for all week and consistency is what we got tonight.

“We protected a one nil lead and we built on it.

“Young Amadu [Koroma] played the lone ranger all night and finished off with a great goal.

“[James] Hope, coming back after injury, a great goal.

“A great win.”

  • South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said:

“Disappointing. We dominated the match from start to finish.

“We haven’t put the chances away, so Glenorchy Knights have gone on and I think they’ve had four chances in 90 minutes and scored from three of them.

“Disappointing because we didn’t get on with the game, but happy with the way we played.

“We passed the ball well, and we packed the middle third and retained possession very well, but in the front third we lacked penetration until late in the game.”
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STATISTICS

GLENORCHY KNIGHTS SOUTH HOBART
8 Goal Attempts 15
3 Shots on Target 4
1 Corners 11
10 Fouls Committed 12
1 Off-Sides 6
1 (Sherman 75) Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0

Glenorchy Knights:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Sherman 3 0
Marsh 2 1
Koroma 2 1
Hope 1 1

South Hobart:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Eaves 3 1
Ladic 2 1
Cooper 1 0
Hickey 2 0
Scott 1 0
Kanakaris 3 1
Upton 1 0
Ross 2 1

19 comments:

Stick said...

gee what a shame great to see the young knights doing well Congrats to Tony after retirement during the week maybe walter could do articles on guys like this that have given so much rather then some want a be who will be where in ???? Kenny 3 to 4 shots on target??? carn't you buy a striker this year sad isn't it even Kingbourgh can score this year.. Isn't Cooper a striker ??? No of course not rightfooter playing left back best coach in the league????? showing it isn't he....

Well done Knights

yellowgemi said...

nothing better than to see south hobart lose, great win by knights, nice to see south starting to fall down the ladder, how long till morton takes off and moves clubs?

Jake said...

Really pleased to see the knights playing good football! Well done to the players and Eamon. I didn't see the match, however it's great to see the boys back up two great wins against South. It goes to show that no matter how much talent you have, if you show heart and passion for the game you will always come out on top!

Captain said...

Hey Jerrie

those cracks are starting to look like little holes.

The Phoenix said...

So it would appear that the Clarence v Uni game is off tonight. it will be interesting to see how FFT go about resceduling it.!!!

jerrie kruijver said...

#8.i dont know if the cracks at south are becoming holes.we all said this years premierleague would be a close competition.and this proves to be the case.south has copped a few injuries wich does not help,but so have other sides.we all know a bit of formloss causes a loss of confidence.i hope to see eagles stay up and a close race for the premiership and no more bad injuries to anyone.

eightball said...

hey, gemi great call. with all the amazing junior teams south have with every player of theirs going to be the next big thing, great to see they can still poach rival teams players. morton with the midas touch- yeah right, south should keep their wallts closed. if shay and ladic still at knights they'd be on top

jerrie kruijver said...

wow.is this the forum for a morton hate session???good grief

yellowgemi11 said...

jerry maybe everyone is just so happy to see south losing,they poach every player and still can not win i think its fantastic,eightball i totallly agree with you and just seeing the look on ladics face after the last 2 games shows he thinks he has made a mistake by leaving knights just for 1 year of glory in wich he didnt achieve more than he did at knights

Sent off 1 said...

Gee some of you guys must really get off , on knocking the tall poppy , so South lose a couple of games , the wheels fall off ? are they playing decent football yes acording to Ken , can't finish funny most of the teams in the world have that problem , just ask Pim Verbeek!
South have hit a bit of a wall , looking back I think all teams this year have hit similar walls , gee only a couple of weeks ago Kelly was hung and quartered Know he is a messiah ..:)
Think bigger problem is Olympic and how they get out of their slump! same squad for a number of years nothing new just hard graft and if it doesn't work blame the officials or somebody else never their fault , maybe it is time to look inside the bubble and make some cultural changes ??? both off and on the field.

ginger said...

i agree with your comments sent off. People do seem to be jumping bandwagons a lot!! but i guess thats their perogative.
From all reports south have been playing well but lack that penetration in the final third. as the weather, and grounds, get worse their passing game will become even harder. time for kenny to opt for a more direct approach i feel. after all goals, not pretty passes, win matches. kanakaris isnt a striker, yet cooper and brown have played there a fair bit...
Olympic can blame whoever they like for losing 11 nil. the simple fact is they were 4 nil down after 30 with 11 men! they could do well to look at what knights have done the last month. they have plenty of 'old faces' in both their seniors and reserves. time for some youth as their season is already over.
whoever made the decisions at knights doesnt really matter. they should be congratulated for making a very tough decision and moving the club in a new direction. Googsie, Tony, Ben Peter etc are vastly experienced players and great stalwarts of the club. Their contribution to many trophies should be recognised. Good luck with the youth Eamon, they will only get better.

Dmitri Nester said...

Ginger and Sent Off,
I thinkyou should make sure you read the comments properly before making silly responses.
Not once was it mentioned that Kim was responsible for our loss on the weekend. Yes it was our fault we were down 4-0 at that point. Would we have won had 2 players not been sent off, probably not based on our performance at that point.
Our issue has only been about a decision being made by the referee based on an assumption.
Can you honestly tell me you would be happy for referees to make decisions based on assumptions as a general rule???

eightball said...

as bad as olympic are at the moment, atleast they don't make outrageous comments of how well they're going to go this year. one thing i'm sure a couple of us would never do is jump ona south wagon. i like they way the south players hair look so darn well maintained in their photo's

Sent off 1 said...

Dmitre never referred to the one game in my comment referred to the what has happened over a period of time , your response is exactly what I was referring to .

PS 4- zip down 30 minutes in with 11 players not 9 latest game is just another example of when things go wrong the team implodes.

eightball said...

eagles haven't really had a choice to rebuild with a number of players leaving, just healthy thatthey have stuck with their underaged players. don't the older blokes that are still playing at olympia run the club anyway?? one of the zebra players told me tsakiris called kim a malaka, but innuendo does exist a tiny bit in the fishbowl that is tasmanian football

jerrie kruijver said...

yellowgemi,players being poached says more about the the loyalty of the player then about the person inviting him to change clubs.no player gets poached against their will

batistuta said...

I think people need to realise that you can't just go with youth.
You can only go with youth if you have quality players that will develop.
Olympic do not have enough players in this category to rebuild that quickly, the same way that eagles did not have enough quality young players in the past and then knights also in the near past.
Knights have gone for youth and have a team that has 6 players still eligible for under 19 and then the remainder of the squad all below 26 apart from wiggins.
The thing here is that the young players are all good enough... players like tatnell, sherman, holmes, roberts, koroma etc are all up to the task where as in some situations clubs don't have these quality youngsters.
The thing knights have done well is breed these players in at the back end of 2008 under fielding and begovic and in pre-season this year under kelly one by one until they got to this situation where they can play the youth but the youth have experience to boot.
also 4 or 5 older players in the knights side have led from the front recently which helps the youth. heard a whisper that two brazilians are making their way to knights in the coming weeks so the title race may be within knights sites if they can keep in touch until then.

yellowgemi11 said...

batistuta totally agree with you about the rebuilding, i have also heard these brazilians are going to knights, also how is corey smith going at knights?

Sir Mix a Lot said...

Important for the Knights not to get ahead of themselves regardless of how good some new inclusions may be. Only 4 games ago they lost by 5 to Zebras. Fantastic last 3 results, most of the chances were taken when they arose which is the sign of a good team and plenty room of improvement would be fair to say.
Not taking anything away from Knights but South weren't exactly outplayed last two games, they just seemed to lack a final ball in the box.
Zebras too many scoring options for all teams, they will romp it in. Their current front 6 are all excellent attacking players complemented by defender Fagg who seems to score 6-8 goals a season.
Unless something major changes cant see them dropping too many more points.
Interesting to see how Clarence go, with the added experience in their team this year and with Cripps on fire they look very good for a top 4 finish.