It will need a major upset for Devonport City not to retain
their NPL Tasmania league crown.
With almost half of this shortened season gone, Devonport
have a 6-point lead over second-placed Glenorchy Knights, whom they beat 1-0 at
home at Valley Road yesterday through a goal on the half-hour by Connor Parke.
Devonport keep grinding out wins by the odd goal, but that’s
all you need to collect 3 points and win the title.
Yesterday, they again showed dogged determination and
purpose to down the Knights, who might easily have won.
Knights’ Alex Bellini hit the post and Joffrey N’Koso
showed great dribbling skills, but Devonport keeper Nathan Pitchford rescued his side
with at least two outstanding saves.
If you’ve got a brilliant goalkeeper, if luck is on your
side, and if you can snatch a goal every game while the opposition cannot put
away their chances, you’re well on the way to the title.
That pretty well sums up Devonport City. You don’t have to play attractive football
all the time, but winning each game by a goal or two is good enough to hold off
the chasing pack when you’re on top of the standings.
Photo: The clash of the 15s. Kingborough's Davis Bryan and Olympia's Declan Brown tumble over the ball. [PlessPix]
Kingborough Lions United and South Hobart are the other
wannabes, but I don’t think they’re good enough to overhaul Devonport and Knights.
South Hobart downed Riverside Olympic 2-1 away through
goals by Kasper Hallam and Sam Berezansky, two of the brightest young stars in
the league, while it was almost inevitable that Nils Sanz would reply for
Riverside.
Unfortunately for Aaron Campbell, he celebrated his 150th
NPL game - more games than any other player in the
competition - with a loss.
Kingborough Lions United seemed gone for all money when
they trailed 2-0 at half-time away to Olympia Warriors at Warrior Park.
Olympia’s two goals came from twins Declan and Callum Brown
within minutes of each other only a quarter of an hour into the game.
Both goals came from the most dangerous pass in the
game: A cut-back from the byeline.
But, the Warriors were to pay for several missed chances in
that first half.
Photo: Olympia's Jack Ryan wins a header as Kingborough's Keenan Douce arrives too late [PlessPix]
Kingborough’s American attacker, Davis Bryan, showed within
minutes of the resumption that the Lions were on the prowl when his shot hit the
base of a post and rolled across the goalmouth before being cleared.
In the 53rd minute, Bryan pulled a goal back for
the Lions with a finish at the near post and that signalled panic stations for
the Warriors.
Their panic was justified when, in the 55th
minute, Adam McKeown outjumped Olympia keeper Darby Randall to head home the
equaliser.
Four minutes later, Kingborough earned a penalty when Chris
Downes’s attempted cross from the left was handled by an Olympia defender and
Mr Coad pointed to the penalty spot.
Randall redeemed himself for his earlier lapse when he beat
out Danny Cowen’s spot-kick, but Cowen was alert and rammed home the rebound to
complete Kingborough’s amazing comeback to lead 3-2 with half an hour to play.
Photo: Olympia's Jack Ryan gains possession while watched like a hawk by the Lions' Danny Cowen [PlessPix]
Jack Ryan almost equalised for Olympia in the 64th
minute when he threw himself at Callum Brown’s left-wing cross, but his
glancing header went wide.
Ryan was desperately unlucky minutes later when his hooked
shot hit the far post and the ball rebounded into goalkeeper Lee Mackie’s arms.
Olympia’s equaliser came out of nothing 2 minutes from the
end. Adam Gorrie’s free kick from way
out on the right eluded almost everyone and then took a couple of deflections
before nestling into the far left-hand corner of the net to make it 3-3.
The defences of both teams were poor and they will need to
rectify that if they are to finish in the top-four.
Bottom-side Launceston City earned their first point of the
season when they held visitors Clarence Zebras to a 2-2 draw at Buckby Land
Rover Park.
Jayden Hey gave the visitors the lead after 17 minutes before
James Hawes equalised 3 minutes later.
Substitute Samson Juju restored Clarence Zebras’ lead with
12 minutes of the game remaining with his first goal since joining from South
Hobart three weeks ago, but a late strike by Matthew Oh gave Launceston City their
first point of the campaign.
The two Italian-backed clubs occupy the bottom-two places,
which is a most unusual look in Tasmanian football.
Photo: Olympia's Nick Mearns starts a counter-attack [PlessPix]
NPL Tasmania
Devonport City 1 (C Parke 30) beat Glenorchy Knights 0
Riverside Olympic 1 (N Sanz 52) lost to South Hobart 2 (K
Hallam 12, S Berezansky 52)
Olympia Warriors 3 (D Brown 13, C Brown 16, A Gorrie 84)
drew with Kingborough Lions United 3 (B Davis 54, A McKeown 55, D Cowen 59)
Launceston City 2 (J Hawes 20, M Oh 83) drew with Clarence
Zebras 2 (J Hey 17, S Juju 78)
NPL Tasmania
Standings (As at 22
August 2020)
TEAM
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
Pts
|
Devonport City
|
6
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
10
|
3
|
18
|
Glenorchy Knights
|
6
|
4
|
0
|
2
|
13
|
7
|
12
|
South Hobart
|
6
|
4
|
0
|
2
|
12
|
7
|
12
|
Kingborough Lions
|
6
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
12
|
12
|
11
|
Olympia Warriors
|
6
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
13
|
12
|
7
|
Riverside Olympic
|
6
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
8
|
15
|
4
|
Clarence Zebras
|
6
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
6
|
12
|
4
|
Launceston City
|
6
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
7
|
13
|
1
|
7 comments:
Olympia really need to rethink their model. Year after year they promise to deliver but so rarely do, despite their ability to recruit top level players.And from what I see they are not utilising some of the talent they do have effectively. Gorrie hardly sees the ball some games and his pace is rarely put to good use. Maybe it is the tiny size of Warrior Park with all the width of a council carpark parking space. You wonder whether Nick Taylor should be put in charge of recruitment and manage the seniors.
Warriors need to play a system that suits players like Gorrie
I posted here last week about Kingborough Lions. I told someone they were premature to call Lions out after their first loss of the season.. Just wondering if that person is still about? :)
Anon 10.33.
Yes so am still here. Boro have now dropped to fourth as predicted.
Please don’t insinuate that they played well against an Olympia side that just
don’t know how to win.
Let’s see if you are still about in four or five weeks time when they will
be closer to bottom teams than the top teams.
I would not draw any conclusions from this game vs the Olympia.
Both teams are crap and badly coached.
Anon 11:26 AM
To be fair, going to Warrior park and getting a point isn't easy. I know Olympia aren't the team they should be, but that isn't an easy feat.
Boro have been a one trick pony with their strength at set pieces needs to be a bonus rather than the main route to goal
Who knows about Olympia because they have changed coach and players more times than Sunday dinners
Good players doesn't necessarily mean good teamwork. Poor culture, poor teamwork.
It would be nice to see a club build rather than try to buy success.
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