Northern Report and Photos by Brendan Lichtendonk of Northern Rangers

Photos by Brendan Lichtendonk

Riverside Olympic Vs Kingborough Lions. – Windsor Park.
Att -100.

1-1 H/T
5-1 F/T
Riverside 5 (S.Hughes 9, 53. W.Guy 68, 70. C.Jackson 90) def Kingborough (G.Freeman 45+1)

Kingborough made the trip north to Windsor Park to play Riverside Olympic for their qualifying round clash of the Milan Lakoseljac Cup.

As is often the case, a reasonable breeze was blowing south down the ground giving a clear advantage to the side kicking with it.

Kingborough had the pleasure in the first half. The opening 10 minutes saw Kingborough dominated the play, hitting the tackles hard and making use of the possession well. They were being denied early by some first class goal keeping, but it was Riverside who scored first in the 10th minute.

Sam Hughes ran loose of his opponent and through on goal and finished in fine style past the keeper.

Kingborough retained the better of the rest of the half, creating plenty of goal scoring chances but were continually denied by either great goal keeping or inaccurate shooting, predominantly sending the ball over the bar.

The best of the chances coming from Ross Hinkley who turned his defenders, then struck a shot from 18yards out, the ball was goal bound into the top left corner, but Riverside’s keeper produced a sensational save to deny the equaliser.

Riverside had their chances in the first half to extend the lead but inaccurate shooting cost them a larger lead.

Riverside’s Simon Napier’s shot from 25 yards out was a poor effort, but it fell to the feet of an Olympic striker all the same, on the edge of the 18yard box, Kingborough’s defensive challenge was clumsy and collected the ankles of the attacker and a penalty was awarded by Referee Chris Parr. Robbie Hughes stepped up to take it, but struck the ball well over the cross bar, and had missed a golden chance to send Riverside 2-0 up against the wind.

Kingborough had one more chance to level the scores before half time when Greg Freeman was sent on a run down the right hand side of the park, he cut in and went one on one with the keeper and made no mistake in leveling the scores at 1 all at half time.

The second half opened with a great chance for Kingborough to go ahead when Hinkley crossed perfectly to Freeman in the 18 yard box, however Freeman couldn’t control the chances and sent the ball over the bar again.

On 50 minutes Riversides play maker Robbie Hughes seemed to tear his hamstring chasing a promising thru ball, a blow that threatened to knock the stuffing out of Riverside. Colin Jackson came on as his replacement and lifted the overall performance of Riverside.

From here it was all Riverside as they used the wind and a great deal of determination to wrestle back control of the game.

In the 53rd minute, Riverside went ahead when Sam Hughes beat three defenders and the keeper on his own and slotted the ball perfectly into the back of the net.

Then a goal keeping error cost Kingborough dearly in the 68th minute as the keeper came out to a through ball that really wasn’t a threat, his deflected save ended up at the feet of Steven Goulbranson who chipped goal-ward and substitute Will Guy headed the ball home on the line, though it was safely home already.

Riverside went further ahead just minutes later again through Will Guy who was set up unselfishly by a striker who had only the keeper to beat, he neatly crossed for the advancing Guy who needed only hit the ball accurately into the open net for a goal and a 4-1 lead.

Colin Jackson iced the cake for Riverside when he was released through on goal from the half way point, his pace and strength on the ball was too much for the Kingborough defense and he went through all the way to the penalty area unchallenged and finished easily past a defenseless keeper for the final score line of 5-1.