Devonport City will need to wait at least another week before claiming the 2020 NPL Tasmania title following yesterday’s games.
Devonport maintained their 6-point lead over second-placed Glenorchy Knights by downing Clarence Zebras 2-1 at home at Valley Road, while the Knights left it late before beating Riverside Olympic 3-0 at their home of KGV Park.
Kingborough Lions United slipped from third place to fifth after losing 3-2 to visitors South Hobart at Lightwood Park.
Olympia Warriors regained third spot with a 4-0 away win over bottom-side Launceston City at Buckby Land Rover Park in Launceston.
Devonport, the reigning champions, trailed to a 25th-minute goal by Matthew Pace until Devonport decided to bring on Miles Barnard midway through the second half.
As has so often been the case, Barnard rescued his side with two goals in 3 minutes late in the game.
His first, in the 75th minute, made it 1-1, while his second, in the 77th minute, earned the North-West Coast outfit all 3 points.
Meanwhile, at KGV Park, Glenorchy Knights desperately needed a win against second-last visitors Riverside Olympic to keep alive their faint hopes of the title.
The Knights were lucky not to be trailing at half-time as Riverside had at least two excellent scoring chances. The visitors were denied, however, by good goalkeeping by Lachlan Hart and poor finishing.
The Knights rallied in the second half and Nick Naden broke the deadlock in the 66th minute when his defected shot beat the excellent Jarrod Hill in the Riverside goal.
Victory seemed uncertain for the Knights until stoppage time at the end of the game. Eduardo Castaneda made it 2-0 in the 90th minute when he tapped home after his first shot was parried by the keeper, while Alex Walter scored in the 3rd minute of stoppage time to make it 3-0.
It was not an impressive win, but it was enough to keep the Knights in title contention.
Olympia Warriors scored three times in the opening half against Launceston City and added a fourth midway through the second half through an amazing long-range chip over the keeper by Austin Yost.
South Hobart had to survive a strong comeback by Kingborough before running out 3-2 winners at Lightwood Park.
Bradley Lakoseljac gave the visitors an early lead and they maintained that 1-0 advantage until the interval.
Two goals by Nick Morton in 3 minutes around the hour-mark appeared to give South Hobart an unassailable 3-0 lead.
Kingborough had other ideas, however, and two outstanding goals by the home side in the final 20 minutes made for a tense finish.
Both goals came from excellent attacking play involving Keenan Douce and were scored brilliantly by Adam McKeown, who took his tally in the NPL Tasmania competition to 100 goals, which is second only to Devonport’s Brayden Mann.
Kingborough had the ball in the net again just before the end, but the effort was not counted because there were two players off-side.
NPL Tasmania results:
Devonport City 2 (M Barnard 75, 77) beat Clarence Zebras 1 (M Pace 25)
Glenorchy Knights 3 (M Naden 66, E Castaneda 90, A Walter 90+3) beat Riverside Olympic 0
Launceston City 0 lost to Olympia Warriors 4 (Mamic 20, C Brown 32, J Mwarabu 33, Yost 67)
Kingborough Lions United 2 (A McKeown 71, 88 ) lost to South Hobart 3 (B Lakoseljac 16, N Morton 60, 62)
NPL Tasmania Standings (As at 10 October 2020)
|
TEAM |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
Devonport City |
12 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
23 |
8 |
34 |
|
Glenorchy Knights |
12 |
9 |
1 |
2 |
33 |
9 |
28 |
|
Olympia Warriors |
12 |
6 |
1 |
5 |
30 |
21 |
19 |
|
South Hobart |
12 |
6 |
1 |
5 |
24 |
23 |
19 |
|
Kingborough Lions |
12 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
23 |
29 |
18 |
|
Clarence Zebras |
12 |
3 |
2 |
7 |
18 |
27 |
11 |
|
Riverside Olympic |
12 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
13 |
32 |
5 |
|
Launceston City |
12 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
13 |
29 |
4 |
11 comments:
The G.K's where not impressive in the first half at all, however a different team ran out after half time, they dominate possession and field position, peppering the Rivers goal with shots, the Rivers did ping one of the base of the Knights post on one of their break aways but as a whole the Knights dominated the second half. The substitutions made by Sherman had the desired effect and in the end it was a comfortable win, yes two of the goals came late but is was a dominant second half performance with two players returning from injury performing very well, when they came on. Of course unless something amazing happens next week, the title looks like Devonports. The Laka cup may be the Knights top focus.
The accidental hand ball decision after the linesman flagged it a hand ball in the Devonport box was an absolutely disgraceful second rate refereeing display , and I didn’t really give a rats who won the game but the decision probably saved the strikers backside . Although they had huge turnover numbers I thought the young Clarence Zebras team really countered well and great defensive efforts most of the game and were unlucky to lose , my opinion anyway
have just watched, a few times, the penalty decision given by Stratos P. to Riverside against the Knights. All i can say is thank god it was called back to an offside decision because there is no way the keeper even touched the attacking Riverside player, didn't think so live at the ground and watching again i still think the same.
What's going on down at Kingborough with the withdrawal of their Champ 1 side.
They have a huge catchment of players to draw from and this happens. surely there has to be repercussions for this, Absolutely Poor Loins. I do remember that FT and the NPL clubs wanted to play in the Champ and the southern Champ clubs didn't want a bar of it. The NPl clubs were also going to boycott if the didn't get their way with the way they want there competitions run.
I think the Champ clubs should boycott from having the NPL clubs in their competition. NPL should be stand alone and if the Northerner's don't like it they can play in the Northern Champ.
There can never be any progress in the South until NPL is stand alone as the southern champ brings in Promotion.
Did you watch it at full speed from the ref's view?
7:24PM
on the flipside the young kids at the NPL clubs have gained massive experience playing adults. Some were scared to start off with but these competitions has enhanced their development. It's better than playing in the Mickey Mouse League they used to play in.
I do agree about the NPL being stand alone and with the Kingborough debacle it should happen next year instead of the year after.
Was mightily impressed with the Zebras kids on Saturday - took it right up to the Strikers and weren't overawed. They'll make some mistakes along the way but that's the best way to learn and get better for future years.
For all of Devonport's failures in front of goal this year, they still have the two key ingredients that have served them so well since 2016 - the best back four and the best goalkeeper in the comp.
Anon 7.24.
Social / community club is the answer.
They also lost their coach earlier in the year.
That was a super cross for Kingborough's second goal
Dev just keep on finding a way to get it done. Best Defence in the league. +15 goals difference for 11 wins says it all.
I thought the rules stated that if a club needs to withdraw a side due to lack of numbers that the clubs lowest side had to be with drawn to make players available for the higher leagues. So if this is true then this is piss poor from the lions and it’s wrong from FT to allow it to happen
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