Saturday, May 30, 2009

Tilford Zebras lose ground slightly after draw with Eagles

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League leaders Tilford Zebras were held to a 3-3 draw by sixth-placed New Town Eagles at Clare Street this afternoon.

Second-placed Glenorchy Knights closed the gap on Zebras to 5 points with a 3-1 win over fifth-placed Clarence United at KGV Park on Friday night.

Third-placed South Hobart halted their run of three consecutive losses by trouncing Hobart Olympic 6-0 at South Hobart today, their biggest ever victory over Olympic.

And, bottom-side University collected only their second point of the league campaign by holding fourth-placed Kingborough Lions United to a 1-1 draw at home at Olinda Grove this afternoon.

Two goals by Ricky Self and one by second-half substitute Ben Crosswell near the end appeared to have given Zebras a 3-2 win over Eagles, but Adam McKeown ensured the home side of a draw with an equaliser with the last kick of the match.

McKeown and Nick Ferrall scored the other goals for Eagles.

Terrible defending was at the heart of Clarence’s loss to Knights, who took the lead through Amadu Koroma in the 29th minute.

Luke Cripps equalised in the 54th minute, but late goals by Alex Holmes, in the 85th minute, and Corey Smith, in the 87th minute, gave Knights the three points.

South Hobart squandered several easy opportunities before Liam Scott put them ahead in the 35th minute, scoring from close range after Kostas Kanakaris had nodded Jonathon Ladic’s free-kick into the 6-yard box.

Former Olympic player Kanakaris made it 2-0 three minutes later when he raced onto a ball down the left from Scott and beat Chris Tsimiklis before cutting inside and shooting past a hesitant Chris Tsakiris and inside Dmitri Nester’s right-hand post.

The second half was one-way traffic as Julius Ross added South’s third in the 55th minute with a rocket into the roof of the net from Kanakaris’s cross.

Ladic made it 4-0 in the 56th minute from another Kanakaris cross, while Ross added his second, and South’s fifth, 8 minutes from the end following Shae Hickey’s chip to the far post, which seemed to confuse Nester, who could only palm it down into Ross’s path.

David Abbott nut-megged goalkeeper Nester for South’s sixth after being put through by Hickey’s pass.

South’s previous best win against Olympic was in 1996, when they won 5-1 against a far better Olympic side than this one.

18 comments:

Richard Bladel said...

Hmm nearly 12 o'clock on a sunday and no posts from the legions of the oh so very wise south hobart knockers from last week. I wonder why? Maybe the tall poppy stood up again?

iw said...

Yeah no one is bothering about knocking South Hobart because they beat an Olympic team who have conceded the most goals this season and are looking extremely average. Well done South, would be a bit of a worry if you couldnt get on the score sheet against a very average olympic!

Sir Mix a Lot said...

Richard, lets see how South go after this week particularly after Saturday. South must be due to beat Zebras soon.
Kanakaris a great signing by Morton, from the match report sounds like he was involved with all the goals.
Anyone shed light on what happened with the Uni keeper/keepers?
Walter, any chance you can include a ladder on the site and update it at end of weeks games? I reckon most are sick of waiting for FFT to update their site and having to work it out in their head.
Ok its not that hard but yes would be nice to have it available quicker.
Anyone have details of the finals series,ie what method is being used?
Is there reserves and 19s finals also?

yellowgemi11 said...

richard nobody cares about the show ponys anymore,we are more concered about the top 2 teams in the leauge rather unlike south hobart who are more concerned with how there hair looks more than the effort they put into there games

Sub said...

Yellowgem , anyone who thinks south are not one of the top two teams needs to get there head checked, its a long season, dont let the power of being second on the ladder for two weeks go to your head...

Shinpad said...

Uni's goalie swap seemed to make a difference Sir Mix a Lot. They need a striker and it seems the former goalie is one!! They may be bottom but has anyone else noticed an improvement since their cup defeat of eagles? Their mid field looks stronger and is making more play. Defence is sound with the different goalie. Just need some goal scorers and they'd be a good side! Shame they're going down!

batistuta said...

lets be honest this is how the teams in tasmania's top flight stack up!

zebras - very strong striking options but slow in defence, lots of weak points which don't get tested due to the fact they have 3 or 4 of the league's best players. welch, connolly, kaden are not senior quality and they will get found out. crosswell is the best in the state and is supported by smith, telega, brazendale, cairns and walsh. They will romp home the title.
knights - rely heavily on workrate and also on fielding, smith, clay and koroma for flair. solid at the back and maybe a contender if brazilian players are as good as last years.
south- no heart, no strength, lots of technical ability and a coach who doesn't know how to play ugly to get results. they will trounce some teams and then drop points against teams who sit back against them. not a threat.
kingborough - good solid side with no real oomph in attack. held together with white, iseli and marchiloi.
clarence - the "next year we will be a threat" for the last 5 yrs. same again this year.
eagles - good young squad with mckeown on fire but they change too much every week and the coach is very ordinary tactically on game day. talent to do better.
olympic- worst team in the league on their day but thankfully they have the tsakiris boys to keep them up along with some guys who can finish on their day.
uni - unfortunately div 1 destiny awaits. richard de lara only player of note.

Sir Mix a Lot said...

Interesting comments Batistuta.
Couple things missed, Jayden Welch for Zebras has been outstanding, definetely best winger in the league this season,
just look at the goalscoring charts. Good to see a young lad turn his early promise into results at a higher level.
Also missed Self has been very prominent in the middle summed up by his double against Eagles.
Rumour has it Brazendale may be travelling soon, that will hurt them especially in the big games.
Looks like you have insider information re the Knights, i hope when the inclusion/s come along they are fed the ball, one thing i noticed a lot with Igor last year is that he wasn't given enough of the ball by his team mates to make a huge impact. This could be as a result of team tactics or technical ability of team mates, not sure.
Dont get me wrong he was impressive, but in some games I saw he didnt touch it for 10-15 minutes.
If Knights get the mix right, they'd be a good show to take out the title, Zebras do appear to leak goals and Knights have stopped this trend of late hence their excellent results.
Bit harsh on South, they havent lost many games in 2 years, Morton is no fool and he wont leave any stone unturned in his quest to be the best this year. Write them off at your peril, they still play very good football, and i think their last month's form could be a big wakeup to kick them into gear. Time will tell.
Clarence shouldn't be written off either, if they can avoid injuries to their key experienced players they will be there and thereabouts. Looks like lacking a bit of confidence at the moment
The rest.. they will pinch points off the top 4 here and there but not consistent enough to get up the ladder in my opinion.
Uni will be relegated with 5 games to go and there will be cricket scores against them for those games.

NTE SC said...

eagles are a young side with alot of talent.....can be very unpredictable however and lose to teams below them ie olympic..but on their day can match it with any other team in the comp as shown last w/e!!...very good team with lots of promises....mckeown is in really good form and causing alot of trouble for oppositon defences...wass is solid at the back and the other players contribute evenly across the board!! .... NTE's not to be written of in any game! darkhorse of the comp imo!

The General said...

batistuta- I would have to agree with Sir Mix a Lot. Jayden Welch played extremely well against Eagles and Ricky Self is a class player. Crosswell is excellent, but not sure i would pick him ahead of Brazendale.
Josh Fielding would be one of my first picks for midfield and Jade Clay would have to get a start in a state team.

The General said...

Marty - My daughter and i watched the Eagles v Zebras game. She thought the referee was ok, but "thought he let too many things go." There are some good referees down South, but i agree with her that many of the referees let fouls go unpunished which frustrates the players and then the game gets ugly.
It was good to see Nick Ferrell back in the team. He added extra pace and spark that appeared to be missing in a few games this year.

Marty Nidorfer said...

General, my comments were about what happened at the Div 1 match, Beachside v Metro. I wasnt at the Eagles Zebras match, and cannot comment on that match.Was actually involved in a div 2 loss to the Knights unfortunately. They were fantastic, and our guys were pretty good as well, although we couldnt reciprocate, it was nice that they offered us up for a lemonade after the game.
Apologies for the confusion.
Zebras doing well, Eagles bouyed by a point with the league leaders, I reckon with some more consistency we will be a big chance for for finals football.

The General said...

Marty, no confusion or need to apologise. I should have mentioned that i didn't see you at the Eagles game, so thought i would give you another 'angle' on that game in light of the current discussion about referees. Hopefully all of the Premier and Div 1 teams will improve their consistency. Coaches/players should watch the Uni/TIS u/19 team play. They would learn a thing or two.

The Phoenix said...

Some very interesting comments here. This weeks double header could see things really start to take shape. Would think that both south hobart and clarence would need to win both matches to stay in the hunt for the title. both teams struggle for consistancy good one week not so flash the next. Clarence should have beat zebras the week before and then were from what i hear very ordinary against knights.
South cant really get much from their win on the weekend , everyone is beating Olympic ( sorry George )which must give Uni a glimmer of hope especially if they can dispose of olympic on friday night because knights will be pumped for them on Monday.
its good to see that we have no run away leaders and that 4 or five teams are still in the mix .

On the knights ,kelly needs to keep sweet with corey or he won't get his brazilians lol

Aw. said...

batistuta, for starters your comments are pathetic. Have you ever played soccer at a senior level? clearly not. Jayden Welch has proved to the league what a outstanding player he is, easily best winger in the league this season, agreed. He's quick, hard to catch, his goals are accurate and he really represents the zebras with flying colours. Who are you to say welch, connolly, kaden are not senior quality and they will get found out. Your comments have no significance at all, it is petty little gibberish no one cares for. Last time I checked Jayden was ranked in the top ten goal charts, plus he missed atleast five games to begin with!As for Eagles coach George your comment about him being ordinary tactically on game day was also no where near accurate. Eagles put up a good fight against zebras and George deserves to be congradulated. Ricky Self needs to learn to share the ball, nothing against him i'm sure he is a a great person and player, but lets be honest.

batistuta said...

is aw. jayden welch? rates himself highly? he has scored two hatricks in an 11-0 win and a romping at lightwood.

other than that just one goal.

no good against good teams as he is fast and that is it.

Krauser said...

Ha Well The Great Bastistuta, ull be eating ur words on saturday, i think he is quality and will prove u wrong against south.
a hattrick at lightwood is apprently easy is it ? has anyone scored one down there ??
scoring 3 in an 11 nil win, yeh id hate to do that aswell... ur a tool.
against boro he stood up when zebras were down, other games it has been other guys im sure, so why bag him ? he is clearly at this level.

Corey Smith said...

benchie, brazilian on his way. Breno Bianchini.
who has been the best for zebras this season? they seem to have many contributors? I haven't seen them much but they gave us a lesson first round.