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South Hobart showed in this match why they are the reigning champions.
With several key players out through injury (Bart Beecroft, Greg Downes) or unavailability (Matthew Brown, Daniel Brown), and reduced to ten men after 26 minutes when Gary Upton was sent off, they still dominated the match and won convincingly.
Hobart Olympic were extremely disappointing. They squandered some good chances early on and then dropped away completely.
They were devoid of attacking ideas, even with the one-man advantage. They never adapted tactically to this situation and missed the chance to earn some points.
They are second last on the ladder and things are looking far from promising.
Upton was in trouble as early as the 8th minute when he received a yellow card from Mr Collins after tangling with Kostas Kanakaris.
In the 26th minute, he was involved in another incident in the middle of the park and Mr Collins showed him the red card after consulting his assistant, Mr Jozeljic. Michael Bulis was shown a yellow card.
South Hobart adapted quickly to being a man short, but it was Olympic that squandered a great chance in the 40th minute.
Shae Hickey gave the ball away on the edge of the box to Adam Hedge, who slipped it wide to Bulis, but he fired into the side-netting.
In the 45th minute, Bulis had another glorious scoring chance after a great run by Kanakaris, but he failed to go around the goalkeeper inside the box and Sam Kruijver smothered the ball at the striker’s feet.
Two minutes into stoppage time, South attacked down the right and Julius Ross cut inside and planted a perfect low shot inside the far post to give South Hobart a 1-0 lead at the break.
Ricky Eaves made it 2-0 in the 56th minute after an error by Robert Lebski, while Hickey added the third in the 72nd minute from David Abbott’s accurate cross from the left.
South were well on top by this stage and took the luxury of sending on youngsters Jim Pennicott and Nick Di Falco in the dying minutes of the match.
Kruijver has now kept a clean sheet for 360 minutes.
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- Hobart Olympic coach, Farrell Shaw, said:
“It’s very hard to beat a team when you keep giving the ball back to them.
“If you can’t keep possession of the ball, you’re not going to win games.
“In games against South Hobart, you just can’t leave any player free because they’re all dangerous.
“They scored three good goals. I have no complaints. Even with ten men, they still played better than us.”
- South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said:
“Unbelievable. Absolutely played them off the park from start to finish.
“You would have thought they had ten men.
“Absolutely brilliant performance. The passing, the movement, and probably from my point of view, one of the most pleasing things was when we lost possession, we got quickly back into good defensive positions and we were close enough to pressurise the ball right around the ground.
“Totally delighted. Best performance of the season for us.
“Showed absolutely great fitness levels and, as I said, the football was fantastic.”
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Hobart Olympic: Nester - Lebski, Mohamad, P Tsakiris, Tsimiklis - C Tsakiris, Mason, A Hedge, Djekanovic (M Hedge 59) - Bulis, Kanakaris (Kunwar 72) [Substitutes not used: Larzabal, Plomaritis]
Booked: Bulis 25, Lebski 83, P Tsakiris 89
South Hobart: Kruijver - Cooper, Ludford, Heerey, Scott (Di Falco 85) - Ross (Pennicott 80), Upton, Ladic, Hickey, Abbott - Eaves [Substitutes not used: Otte, Moncur]
Booked: Upton 8, Abbott 88
Sent-off: Upton 26
Goals: Ross 47, Eaves 56, Hickey 72
HT: 0-1
Att: 100
Ref: S Collins
4 comments:
The SH Faithful were treated to one out of the box on Saturday evening. A strong coherent performance that dominated the game and put 3 in the onion bag while being a man down. Defense was tight and supportive, midfield brilliant & strikers tireless. A bit of controversy, plenty of passion but no doubt about the result.
Some disappointing sportsmanship displayed by non-players with comments directed at Gary Upton after his send off. Good performance by Mr Collins, the only mistake he made was taking notice of his assistant. Clearly an incorrect decision.
It’s a long season, but if the boys can put games together like this one they’ll go close at the end of the year.
Greg, are you sure you are not Tommy Smyth with a 'Y' from ESPN?
Cheers SMAL
Must have heard it somewhere but don't recall where. Being a free to air fundamentalist had to google Smyth to have a look. Reckon Les & Fozzy could use him on the round ball channel to breath a bit of life into it
Sounds like the best South display in a long time. All it took was to go down to 10 men.
South V Zebras is always a good one. South have some form while Zebras look at bit shaky. Think Ludford Jnr & co. might just have this one.
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