Taroona may be on borrowed time after earning a point against Knights, but the pressure is now all on Olympia

Photos (Top to Bottom): Taroona prepare to take a goal-kick; Knights on the attack; Taroona win a throw-in; Knights prepare to take a corner; The Taroona defence marks the Knights' attack; The Taroona huddle after the match; Taroona troop off to await their fate; Taroona know that the pressure is now on Olympia; The Knights' Jackson Marsh was rested as he was on four yellow cards; The Knights' Corey Smith was suspended [PlessPix]

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League (KGV Park, Friday, 13 August 2010)

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Glenorchy Knights 1 (J Clay 52)

Taroona 1 (T Dove 33)

HT: 0-1 Att: 100 Ref: K Barker

Glenorchy Knights: Peter - Russell, Grundy, Green, Roberts - Clay, Holmes, Koroma, Garth - Fielding, Nowicki (Mrzcyk 89) [Substitutes not used: Grainger, Sherman, Griffin]

Taroona: Hortle - Tubb, Schaap, Wyatt, Elliott - Macgregor, Atkinson - Dove (Wright 74), Luttmer (R Carey 67), Abbott - Hamilton [Substitutes not used: Sagawa, Burridge]

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Bottom-side Taroona retained their Premier League status for at least another 24 hours after this 1-1 draw with third-placed Glenorchy Knights.

The result puts them a point ahead of Olympia Warriors, who are now last. Olympia must get at least a draw against second-placed Tilford Zebras at KGV Park tomorrow [kick-off is 6.30pm] to retain their Premier League position and relegate Taroona to Division One.

Both sides set out to win this game and the Knights only had Jacob Huigsloot, James Hope and Jackson Marsh missing from their current strongest line-up, given that Corey Smith is still suspended.

Nerves were clearly getting to some of the players from both sides, but the opening half-hour was quite even. It was clearly going to be a case of the side that made the least mistakes would win.

Knights keeper Ben Peter looked shaky and Taroona should have taken greater advantage. Late in the match, for example, as Peter fumbled the ball on a couple of occasions, Taroona were too slow and imprecise and failed to punish these lapses.

Taroona took the lead in the 33rd minute when Toby Dove’s long-range shot bounced just in front of Peter and the ball eluded him and flew into the net.

Peter then made a couple more errors of judgement but survived as Taroona lacked that killer instinct.

Knights almost equalised in the 37th minute when Brendan Garth let fly from range, but the ball clipped the top of the bar and rebounded to safety.

In stoppage time at the end of the first half, Josh Fielding managed to get onto the end of a right-wing cross from Jade Clay, but he nodded the ball wide.

Seven minutes into the second half, Clay equalised with a low shot from the right after he had to battle hard to retain possession and set himself up for the strike.

Clay was the most dangerous Knights player and he had two more chances before the end. In the 69th minute, he shot narrowly wide and forced a corner as the ball took a deflection, while in stoppage time, he squandered a good chance by firing straight at keeper Robert Hortle.

In between, Taroona’s Garry Hamilton was thwarted twice by Peter and his defenders in desperate goalmouth scrimmages, while the Knights’ Matt Nowicki spurned the chance to win the game for his side when he collected a low ball into the box and shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

The most nervous person in the ground was probably Olympia president, George Mamacas, who paced up and down the steps in the stand. It is up to his team to get at least a point tomorrow against arch rivals Tilford Zebras.

The omens are not good, though, as Zebras have beaten Olympia 5-1 and 1-0 in their two meetings this season.

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· Glenorchy Knights coach, Nick Harrison, said:

“It summed up our season. We had lots of chances but just can’t score goals. We’ve been like that all season, to be fair.

“We said before the game our aim was to finish better than last season. We had 36 points last year so we wanted to win tonight to do better than last season.

“Over the 90 minutes, it was probably a fair result.

“We might be sledged for resting a few players, but we’ve got to look after our club. We want what’s best for our club.

“We proved tonight we went out to do our best to win and we now look forward to the finals.”

· Glenorchy Knights captain, Josh Fielding, said:

“I thought we were unlucky in the end.

“The corners and the possession we had, I thought we probably deserved to get the points.

“But, they fought hard and they deserved it. They were probably a bit more hungry than us on the day and they had more to play for.

“It was a big effort for me to play. I probably shouldn’t have played, but I wanted to test my ankle and see how I went and now I’ll probably have to rest for another two weeks.”

· Taroona coach, Ben Horgan, said:

“I thought it was one of the worst performances we’ve put in all year, but at least we showed a bit of fight, I’ll say that.

“It was just ugly football. I think the boys were just too nervous to relax and play.

“Anyway, we’ve given Olympia something to worry about at least.

“We survive another 24 hours so the pressure is on them now to come up with a result to get rid of us.”