Saturday, June 27, 2009

Clarence drop to second-last on Premier League ladder








Photos (Top to Bottom): Eagles' Jacob Malakoff about to shoot; Knights' Jackson Marsh about to tackle Eagles' Shane Kent; Jacob Malakoff gives Eagles the lead; Eagles' Jamie Vernon gets away from Jade Clay; Knights' Alex Holmes clears ahead of Eagles' Alex Gordon; Eagles' Alex Gordon about to take on Knights' Nektar Vavoulas;

Glenorchy Knights missed the opportunity to go to the top of the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League ladder when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home at KGV Park by second-last New Town Eagles today.

Hobart Olympic moved up a place to fifth by beating Clarence United 3-1 away at Wentworth Park tonight.

Eagles gave a good account of themselves and should have led in the first five minutes, but they could not finish from inside the box against a packed Knights defence.

Cormac Collins, one of Eagles’ most potent attackers, limped off after a quarter of an hour and was replaced By Jamie Vernon, who went on to have at least three good scoring chances without finding the net.

Eagles hit the front in the 38th minute following a short corner by Alex Leszczynski, who played the ball to Shane Kent.

Kent knocked the ball into the edge of the box, where Jacob Malakoff scored after a lightning-fast turn that wrong-footed the Knights defence.

In the second half, Knights had the ball in the net after an error by goalkeeper Michael Soszynski, but the effort was ruled off-side, much to the relief of the keeper.

Alex Holmes, who, together with Brodie Green, was formidable in the centre of the Knights defence, headed the equaliser in the 75th minute from Jade Clay’s corner.

Eagles were denied a late penalty when Adam McKeown appeared to be sandwiched between two defenders and bundled over, but referee Ivan Jozeljic was unmoved.

Soszynski produced some fine saves in the closing stages, while Eagles defender Nick Ferrall did very well to contain the nippy Amadu Koroma for the entire 90 minutes.

It was the Knights’ first draw of the league season.

Michael Bulis put Olympic in front against Clarence with a penalty, but before the first half was over, he missed from another spot-kick.

He was on target again, however, to make it 2-0, while Adam Hedge added the third to send Olympic in 3-0 up at the break.

Luke Cripps pulled a goal back for Clarence early in the second half, but Olympic were well worth their win, their second in less than a week.

Clarence slipped two places to second-last on the ladder, level on 14 points with sixth-ranked Eagles, who have the same goal-difference but who have scored more goals than the Eastern Shore side.

In the Forestry Tasmania Northern Premier League, leaders Northern Rangers came unstuck when they went down 1-0 at home at the NTCA Ground to fourth-placed Somerset today.

A header by Tom Roach in the 26th minute settled the issue.

The win lifted Somerset a place to third on the ladder, but Rangers still hold a 4-point lead over second-placed Devonport City.

Ulverstone moved up a place to fifth by downing bottom-side Launceston United 5-0 at home at the Ulverstone Showgrounds.

27 comments:

Captain said...

doesn't sound good for clarence but still have 2 games in hand against beatable opponents to get back into top 4.

walter wouldn't have liked the elements at wwp tonight.

Walter said...

Captain, I wasn't at the game. My young granddaughter's birthday party took precedence. I heard it started to rain after half-time so it must not have been pleasant.

Anonymous said...

I went to the game at KGV on Saturday ... wow what a great ground it is- NOT. The only good thing about it was the hot food. The bar or upstairs seating wasnt open. The toilet block was of third world standard. The mens urinal didnt flush and my pensioner mother said that the ladies toilet had water all over the floor, even speaking to some of the player, they said that the heaters in the change rooms have been broken for ages. I'd like to know where the FFT spend the money. I can tell you its not at KGV... and i'll be telling people NOT to go to games played there as the facilities are 3rd world if that.(well except the food which was hot and not to expensive)

Richard Bladel said...

Anonymous, you are so right about KGV, well said. I've marvelled at how completely rotten FFT's handling has been on most levels of the game here. FFT is a boys club for a select few, look at the development system with volunteer coaches getting sick of the lack of support and respect, look at the promotion of the game - facilities is part of that - how much practical effort and imagination have they put in? Ever? Even down to how many years it's taken them to get a decent PA system for trophy presentations there, to figure out how to present trophies to league winners without a massive cringe factor - that no-one can hear in the stand anyway - the winners of the league who battle all season only to be handed a crappy cheap medal and a trophy I wouldn't let my cat urinate in. Not to be able to construct a decent celebration for the title winners - one of the central reason we're all in the premier game - is pathetic. We'd all have more respect, I suspect, if we could see any sincere effort to change things for the better, but that just isn't evident. I want me rego money back.

Captain said...

The facilities are great at wwp unless its raining. It rained for most of the game last night. Wouldn't have been a real money spinner as most people went home.

What about the grand plan for the show grounds. We got some grading and a heap of dirt and grass seed spread on the track for $10K?? All this served to do was make the walk to the ground more unpleasant.

Not quite what I'm seeing at Cornelian Bay.

behind play said...

Looking at Clarence, I would be more worried about avoiding relegation than Top 4. All I saw was a bunch of individuals who were trying to be heroes with holding onto the ball too long and were easily dispossessed by the Olympic Defence/Midfield. A few of them need a rocket put under them, otherwise they will be beaten by Uni twice in the next month

Clarence Young Gun (Y) said...

i agree with what people have said about kgv, we do give alot of money, eg paying money just to watch some soccer, lucky i do jump the fence aye lol. friday nights at kgv are good because lots of people go, i dont agree with behind play, you cant say that mate. having in mind we have 3 catch up games to play.

behind play said...

Clarence Young Gun - I'm a Clarence supporter, but if they continue to play like they did on Saturday night, then I think they will most likely not win the catch up games. Let's face it their form has been ordinary at best lately by getting smashed by SH and I thought very unconvincing against Uni in the Cup game. I also hope you are not part of the 1st team, as the name you have picked for yourself could relate to part of the problem

Captain said...

Behind the play - with comments like that you are not a (worthy) Clarence supporter.

behind play said...

Sorry Captain if you don't like my comments, but I really believe that a few of the younger players need to be reminded that this is a team sport and trying to immitate Ronaldo generally has a negative effect.Early in the season we had success through great team work and backing up your team mates. That is just not happening, Now.

Captain said...

nah mate didn't like your comments and the last bit's even worse.

Losing Toby Ling at the back has been a big loss and noone with similar expereince (it seems) to replace him with.

Not sure who you're referring to but I haven't seen it.

We'll be in the top 4 by the end of this week and looking forward to SWC semis.

horror movie said...

ARE YOU REALLY WITH IT CAPTAIN TOP 4 MY BACKSIDE

Captain said...

we'll have a stubbie on that.

Next Sunday night Clarence will be in the top 4.

Who cares said...

2 losses - bottom, 2 wins - 4th or 5th. Big week for the Reds.

Reality2's backside on the line!!

horror movie said...
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The Phoenix said...

WWP is closed until friday so no game mid week for clarence this week !!

ginger said...

WWP closed again. what a joke.

cant beleive FFT have scheduled SWC semi there. the ground must be in terrible shape. for such an important game surely the best surface should be used??
especially given the amount of postponed games there already it would be idiotic to have 1 more that could easily be avoided....
KGV the obvious choice. give the teams the chance to play i say.

The Phoenix said...

ginger the surface of ground 1 and 2 is in great shape just very soft in places , give us some sun and wind and it will be fine .oh and clarence drew the home slot so its up to them not FFT to decide where the game is played .!!!

ginger said...

benchie, if the 2 grounds are in 'great shape' why has this thursdays match been called off??

agree its up to clarence to pick the ground. but surely you would have to agree that more postponed games is the last thing anyone needs.

The Phoenix said...

ginger the problem is the drought . now we have had so mucn rain the under layer is so hard that the water cant get away so it stays in the top layer . the grounds 1 and 2 are really in great nick just to wet to play on, and the coucil dictates the use not the club .

The Phoenix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
djohn said...

1. You can't ask for wind and sun. Good luck trying.
2. It doesn't matter why the ground has been closed ... it just has.
3. KGV has hosted games when wwp has be unable to.
I don't need to spell out a logical resolution to PREVENT yet another postponed game.

Captain said...

Worst June rainfall in 50 years has affected most grounds. If (some)clubs didn't have grounds away from KGV the competition wouldn't exist.

It is clear that this game must be played at WWP so that Clarence can benefit from its managmeent of this ground.

The Big Dog said...

As a general concept, why can't all senior games be played at KGV every week, for example, one game played on Friday nights and 3 on Saturdays.Clubs could take it in turns weekly to have the gate takings and the kiosk takings (run a joint float to keep the kiosk stocked).
The clubs could still run their home grounds each week.
This would at least see all Premier League games played on the best ground all the time, assist in promoting the game and may get better crowds to the venue.

Spectator said...

Big Dog if you played all the games at KGV every week the ground would be ruined after 2 rounds, if not 1. Sure its a good ground but using it all the time would tear up the turf. And how would you expect to play 3 games on Saturday??

The Big Dog said...

Spectator,i'm not sure exactly how many games are currently played at KGV each week, but i suspect that between U19's,Reserves and Premier League, not to mention Women's games, there are probably 3 or 4 already. The 3 games on a saturday could be at 1pm, 3pm, and 5pm for example, or other variations.

Sir Mix a Lot said...

Im with Big Dog on this one.
Play all the senior games at KGV.
No other games there unless needed for midweek catch up games.
Two matches on Friday, 6 and 8.15kick off, allows more warm up time in between.
Two matches on Saturday night, 5 and 7.15 kick off.
Beauty of this is it doesnt interfere with other matches ie socials, women, reserves, 19s so everyone involved in the game can watch the senior matches if they choose to. At the Eagles/Knights match at KGV there were lots more people than there would have been usually and thats because of the ground closures.
I have no doubt if the double headers happened attendances would be minimum 300 each night without fail. Walter would like it too!
Easy to have all games filmed etc also.
Small logistics involved such as gate takings, referee payments, ground hire etc can be worked out and split, can be FFT's responsibility.
Use the surplus money to pay for some of the clubs fees, make it easier for them to make ends meet so clubs can put surplus funds into training facilities and youth/coaching development to improve our game.
Do KGV as much as possible, current facilities are a joke. A function centre at the ground would be nice also.
We need to be proud of our top venue and be able to host A League youth matches etc without having to shift it to a predominantly AFL venue each time.
With the current Soccer boom in Australia at the moment we should be all over sports like Hockey but are lagging at the moment definetely on the facility side of things.
It is embarassing that the top teams here would probably lose to teams in division 3 and 4 in states like Vic and NSW, we need to bridge the gap. The interest is there, numbers at junior and female level are booming also, need to work on the coaching and bring more professionalism to the game.