Kingborough Lions United did the rest of the NPL Tasmania teams a huge favour yesterday when they held the visiting league leaders, Devonport City, to a 1-1 draw at Lightwood Park.
Devonport should have won comfortably, but good goalkeeping
by Kingborough’s Lee Mackie and heart-stopping goal-line clearances on at least
four occasions by Danny Cowen and Joel Sammut thwarted the reigning champions.
Mackie saved two one-on-ones in the opening half against
Brody Denehey and Gianluca Pizzirani to deny Devonport the lead.
Photo: Kingborough's Joel Sammut pressured by Devonport duo Todd Hingston and Gianluca Pizzirani [PlessPix]
Kingborough had taken the lead out of nothing after just 7
minutes. Raphael Reynolds fouled Phil
Kantzos wide on the left and free-kick specialist Chris Downes sent in a
curling ball that eluded everyone and beat goalkeeper Nathan Pitchford.
Try as they might, Devonport were unable to turn their
possession and chances into goals until a minute into stoppage time when a
corner from the left by Joel Stone was headed home at the far post by Miles
Barnard.
Barnard raced away in glee and was on the verge of ripping
off his shirt when he thought better of it.
Instead, he raced back towards goal and taunted the Kingborough defenders.
The draw broke Devonport’s sequence of wins and enabled second-placed
Glenorchy Knights to move to within 4 points of the leaders.
Photo: Kingborough's Phil Kantzos is floored by Devonport's Brody Denehey as Joel Stone look on [PlessPix]
Knights easily accounted for bottom-side Launceston City
3-0 at KGV Park.
Cade Smith game them an early lead and a splendid header by
Alex Walter in the 38th minute made it 2-0 at the interval.
Joffrey N’Koso added the third shortly after the resumption
with a low drive from the left that lodged inside the far post.
Photo: Knights' Connor Schmidt tackles a City opponent [PlessPix]
Olympia Warriors shrugged aside the drama of the week when
coach Andrew Brown was dismissed by beating South Hobart 2-1 at Warrior Park.
Brown’s replacement, Rob Clarke, did not attend and the
team was coached by former player Alex Holmes.
Nick Morton gave the visitors the lead on the quarter-hour
when he deftly turned home a low cross from Ewan Larby, but Olympia drew level
with a penalty converted in the 36th minute by Jack Ryan, who was
playing his final game for the club before returning to the UK.
Ryan was put through by Warren Wadawu but was upended by
South Hobart goalkeeper Nathan Reid, who was shown a yellow card. Reid was fortunate not to be sent off because
he then wrestled with Ryan for the ball before the penalty could be taken.
Reid got his fingers to the penalty, which Ryan placed low
and hard to the left, but he couldn’t keep the ball out of the net. It was Ryan’s sixth goal of the season, four
of which have come from penalties.
Joseph Mwarabu grabbed Olympia’s winner 11 minutes from the
end when his corner from the left eluded everyone and flew into the net.
Clarence Zebras drew 3-3 away with Riverside Olympic at
Windsor Park in Launceston after relinquishing a 3-1 lead.
Matt Spanos gave Riverside a 9th-minute lead but
Jake Thompson’s goal and a brace by Riley Dillon saw the southerners leading
3-1 with less than half an hour to play.
Fletcher Fulton and Tom Prince then scored to salvage a
point for the home side and keep both teams in the bottom-three positions.
Photo: Kingborough's Adam McKeown hooks the ball away from Devonport's Raphael Reynolds [PlessPix]
NPL Tasmania
Riverside Olympic 3 (M Spanos 9, F Fulton 67, T Prince 83)
drew with Clarence Zebras 3 (J Thompson 42, R Dillon 59, 63)
Kingborough Lions United 1 (C Downes 7) drew with Devonport
City 1 (M Barnard 90+1)
Glenorchy Knights 3 (C Smith 9, A Walter 38, J N’Koso 49)
beat Launceston City 0
Olympia Warriors 2 (J Ryan 36 pen, J Mwarabu 79) beat South
Hobart 1 (N Morton 15)
Photo: Devonport's Raphael Reynolds heads clear and Kingborough's James Hall rushes in [PlessPix]
NPL Tasmania
Standings (As at 29
August 2020)
TEAM
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
Pts
|
Devonport City
|
7
|
6
|
1
|
0
|
11
|
4
|
19
|
Glenorchy Knights
|
7
|
5
|
0
|
2
|
16
|
7
|
15
|
South Hobart
|
7
|
4
|
0
|
3
|
13
|
9
|
12
|
Kingborough Lions
|
7
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
13
|
13
|
12
|
Olympia Warriors
|
7
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
15
|
13
|
10
|
Clarence Zebras
|
7
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
9
|
15
|
5
|
Riverside Olympic
|
7
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
11
|
18
|
5
|
Launceston City
|
7
|
0
|
1
|
6
|
7
|
16
|
1
|
4 comments:
Well done to the Olympia Players and first up Senior Coach Alex Holmes for pulling together and getting a very good result. Now please let the coach coach and the players play, to those that have been interfering at player and coach level, leave it be, let Alex do what he needs to do, Give him a chance at the job for the rest of the season, there is nothing to lose. I'm not a Warriors supporter but I feel for the players when they are constantly under threat of verbal abuse by senior administrators. If the Brown boys wish to continue to play all the better, if not it has already been shown that the players there now have the heart and spirit to pull through and get the win. Best of luck Olympia (But not too much).
I have an idea for FT. when referees are not going to turn up I think the home team should be contacted so they can organise someone from their own club instead of last minute decisions to decide who's going to do it.
A Professional organisation that can look very Amateurish at times. Communication is the key to elevate problems that shouldn't happen.
5:34PM
That makes good sense. What happens when the referee is sick or his/her car has broken down or something pops up like work family reasons are clubs contacted?
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