Sunday, April 19, 2009

A game of two halves






Photos (Top to Bottom): Kingborough's Damien Pearce heads at goal; Kingborough's Charles White holds off a challenge from Toby Ling; Kingborough substitute Joel Schuth tries to get the ball under control; Kingborough's Ryan Bevan shields the ball from Jacob Huigsloot; Kingborough celebrate Brett Andrews's goal.

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League, Lightwood Park, Sunday, 19 April 2009

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Kingborough Lions United 3 (Marchioli 27, Andrews 45, White 45+5)
Clarence United 3 (Pearce 11 og, Cripps 58, 83)

HT: 3-1 Att: 150 Ref: S Collins
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Kingborough Lions United: Voss - Palmer, Iseli, Pearce, Wells - Bevan, Andrews, Marchioli, R Hinkley - White, McDonald (Schuth 70) [Substitutes not used: McConnon, Bremner, Leamey] [Coach: G Freeman]

Clarence United: Moschogianis - Toghill, Lewis, Ling, J Huigslott - McMahon, Parker, Cannamela, Stevens (Barron 75) - Cripps, Hunt [Substitutes not used: Knapek, Garth, Sweetten] [Coach: A Brown]
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The football was not great at Lightwood Park on this perfect Sunday afternoon, but there was plenty of excitement and passion.

And, it wasn’t just on the field. Kingborough’s trainer, Bernard Siggins, was sent from the bench and into the stand after voicing his feelings about a decision.

Siggins was not happy with Mr Collins, and even less with his assistant, Mr Kopra.

There were also six goals to titillate the fans.

After falling behind to a ludicrous own-goal early in the match, Kingborough led 3-1 at the break.

They were pulled back to 3-3 with just 7 minutes remaining and then survived a penalty in the 86th minute to earn a share of the points.

That result was just about fair.

There were plenty of fouls. In the first half, Clarence couldn’t put a foot right and their overly physical approach was costing them free-kick after free-kick.

The visitors rallied in the second half and, had Cripps scored from the spot, they would have won and stayed level on 10 points with leaders South Hobart and second-placed Tilford Zebras.

Cripps missed the chance, therefore, to score only his second senior hat-trick.

The home side were without striker Greg Freeman. It would have been fascinating to see what he would have done against this Clarence defence.

As it was, they showed they meant business as early as the 3rd minute when Marc Iseli headed just over the bar from Marcello Marchioli’s deep free-kick.

But, Kingborough then fell behind to an own-goal in the 11th minute. Damien Pearce played an innocuous back-pass towards his keeper Jason Voss, who just snicked the ball as he attempted to kick it, and it rolled just inside the left-hand post.

Clarence might have scored a goal of their own in the 23rd minute when right-back Mattias Toghill floated a long ball from deep into the box. Cripps missed it and the chance went begging.

Four minutes later, the Lions were level. Ryan Bevan made a great run down the right and put a low cross into the box. Tom McDonald dummied and Marchioli was left to fire home.

Clarence threatened through George Stevens in the 39th minute, but after rounding Voss, his shot was cleared for a corner by the retreating Michael Wells.

To Voss’s credit, he regained his composure at this stage after the disaster of the own-goal, and played well, taking high crosses with ease and distributing the ball up-field well.

Kingborough hit the lead in the 45th minute when Marchioli floated a free-kick from midfield towards the left-side of the box. Iseli nodded the ball down and Brett Andrews scored.

Five minutes into stoppage time, the Clarence defence went AWOL. Bevan raced down the right and crossed low to the far side of the box, where the advancing Charles White hammered a bullet past Moschogianis to make it 3-1 at the interval.

Clarence started the second half strongly and worked their way back into contention.

In the 57th minute, Voss turned Chris Hunt’s free-kick over the bar for a corner that bore fruit.

Hunt’s corner was headed out by White, but only as far as Parker, who chipped towards the far post, where Toby Ling squared the ball for Cripps to side-foot home and make it one goal the difference.

With 7 minutes remaining, another corner proved Kingborough’s undoing. The corner from the left was cleared wide to the right, where it was knocked back inside and the ball deflected to Cripps, who netted to make it 3-3.

Four minutes from the end, substitute Andy Barron was brought down on the right of the box by Pearce.

Cripps took the penalty but missed the target, to the relief of the home side and their supporters, who would rightly have been miffed if they had lost.

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  • Kingborough Lions United coach, Geoff Freeman, said:

“In the first half, we were excellent. I couldn’t fault the boys one bit.

“We moved the ball quickly, we got down the channels, we crossed well, we finished well, and we did everything quite well in the first half.

“It was a mix-up for the goal, but you get that. We moved on really well after that.

“In the second half, to Clarence’s credit, they put us under a lot of pressure and made it hard for us to play.

“We just didn’t come out in the second half. We played poorly, we were rushed, we didn’t make challenges stick, and we let them back into the game and conceded two scrappy goals and we were lucky that they missed a penalty late on.”

  • Clarence United coach, Andrew Brown, said:

“I thought that we weren’t able to get into the game in the first half at all.

“We came in and talked to the players at half-time and said the free-kick count was 11 to 2 against us and we had to be more disciplined and less erratic and have better shape.

“The commitment was always there, but we were going over the line.

“In the second half, we saw the real Clarence and, in the end, it would have been perhaps an injustice to Kingborough to come all the way back and actually steal the game.

“But, when you miss a penalty with a couple of minutes to go, you have to think, well that would have been a good win.

“As it is, a point away from home, we’re more than happy with that at Kingborough. They’re a very good football side.”

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STATISTICS

KINGBOROUGH CLARENCE UNITED
11 Goal Attempts 12
6 Shots on Target 8
5 Corners 6
14 Fouls Committed 21
4 Off-Sides 4
1 (Andrews 91) Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0

Kingborough Lions United:
PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Andrews 3 1
Iseli 1 0
Pearce 3 2
White 2 1
Bevan 1 1
Marchioli 1 1

Clarence United:

PLAYER GOAL ATTEMPTS SHOTS ON TARGET
Parker 4 2
Stevens 1 1
Ling 2 1
Cannamela 1 1
Hunt 1 1
Cripps 3 2

3 comments:

Charlie White said...

Great game at lightwood yesterday, although to be fair both teams would have been bitterly disappointed in one half that they played (Clarence the first and Kingborough the second). Great to see 2 clubs who are very similar in what they are trying to achieve playing with such passion and conviction. Thanks to all the Clarence faithful and players for coming in for a drink after, the best turnout from any away team so far. Always good to share a drink and a chat.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Browny needs to keep things simple, clarence are beating teams who are above them, simply because he is playing the structure they started with all year, the one that obviously works!!! against lower teams such as New Town and Boro, Browny shuffled his team around. Without young sammy in the middle, clarence were under real pressure. Why play him up front? it changes things? Clarence's back four were required to defend threat after threat. Stay simple Browny, for not just your sake but your players sake!!