Zebras move back into second place with win over Eagles

Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League (KGV Park, Saturday, 12 June 2010)

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Tilford Zebras 4 (H Fagg 45+4, R Self 53, B Crosswell 78, J Welch 90+2)

New Town Eagles 2 (J Clamp 22, A McKeown 90+2)

HT: 1-1 Att: 50 Ref: K Barker

Tilford Zebras: Voss - Fagg, Telega, Muller, K Engels - Self (Macgregor 70), Ladic, Cairns, Welch - Walsh, Crosswell [Substitutes not used: Hall, Jarvie, Kaden] [Coach: Romeo Frediani]

New Town Eagles: Pitchford - Clark, Kent, Louden, Anderson - Whitehall, Hudson, Quan (Gonzalez 88) - Clamp (Strang 55), McKeown, Leszczynski [Substitutes not used: Fennell, Ferrall] [Coach: George Krambousanos]

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New Town Eagles plan was to play with three strikers and shock Tilford Zebras with their attacking approach. Tall defender Jacob Clamp was one of those strikers.

Clamp it was who scored the opener in the 22nd minute, so the ploy worked for a while at least.

Alex Leszczynski shot just wide of Jason Voss’s right-hand post in the 22nd minute and, seconds later, Eagles won a free-kick just outside the box and dead in front.

Blayne Hudson took the free-kick and Voss could only parry the ball wide, where the lurking Clamp netted from an acute angle to give Eagles the lead.

Three minutes later, Leszczynski again fired just wide, while on the 32nd minute, he placed a free-kick also just wide of the target.

Zebras had missed some early chances and were also denied by some good goalkeeping from Nathan Pitchford, but it took them until stoppage time at the end of the first half to really assert their presence.

In the 47th minute, Paul Cairns fired a tremendous shot against the crossbar and then ball came down and off Pitchford’s shoulder before rolling out for a corner.

In the 4th minute of stoppage time, Zebras were level. Jonathon Ladic lobbed a ball to the right of the box and Henry Fagg nodded it home to send the teams in locked together at 1-1.

Eight minutes after the resumption, Ricky Self put the Zebras in front with a fine volley from 12 metres from the left of the box.

Adam McKeown almost equalised five minutes later when he got on to the end of a cross from Andrew Clark, but his header flew wide.

At the other end, on the hour, Ladic sent over a dangerous left-wing cross that Crosswell controlled, only to shoot wide.

Crosswell did better in the 78th minute when he collected a long clearance out of defence by Ladic and rounded Pitchford to score and give the Zebras a 3-1 lead.

Ladic was unlucky in the 88th minute when he headed a Cairns cross against a post.

Two minutes into stoppage time, McKeown pulled a goal back for Eagles from Clark’s pass, but immediately from the kick-off, Zebras attacked and Ladic’s accurate pass put Jayden Welch clear on the left and he fired across Pitchford and inside the far corner to make it 4-2.

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· Tilford Zebras coach, Romeo Frediani, said:

“I’m definitely happy with the three points. The boys played really well and knocked the ball around in the middle of the park and out wide.

“We put some good goals on the board. I’m very happy with that.”

· New Town Eagles coach, George Krambousanos, said:

“We had a plan and I think the plan worked pretty well. Young Josh [Quan] did a good job on Ben Crosswell.

“We allowed one flank open all the game and I don’t think they exploited it. I don’t know why. They played through the middle a lot of the time.

“We scored two goals and they scored four. Two easy ones. Look, we are below par in players but I think the boys put in a good effort and we’ll go again on Monday.”