It is beginning to look more and more as if either Glenorchy Knights or Devonport City will win the 2021 NPL Tasmania title.
Knights head the standings on 22 points and have a game in hand over second-placed Devonport Strikers, who are 3 points adrift.
Third-placed South Hobart and fourth-ranked Kingborough Lions United are losing momentum after drawing and losing, respectively, on the weekend.
Next Monday will provide a good glimpse of who might win the title as Knights and Devonport meet in the Lakoseljac Cup Final.
The Strikers are hitting goalscoring form and they hit Riverside Olympic for six at Valley Road on Saturday, winning 6-1.
The strikers have now scored 14 goals in two games, which looks an ominous sign for the teams around them.
The Knights downed Kingborough Lions United 3-0 at KGV Park, all the goals coming in the first half. Nick Naden, Nick Mearns and an own-goal by Lions keeper Sheku Kamara did the damage.
The Lions should have pulled at least one goal back, but Adam McKeown missed a header late in the match.
Greg Downes made his debut for the Lions after returning to Tasmania after a decade playing in England.
South Hobart were fuming over having a ‘goal’ by Nick Morton ruled out for off-side in the 1-1 draw away to Launceston City, who had Matthew Oh sent off.
City led 1-0 for almost the entire game and South did not equalise until seep into stoppage time.
Clarence Zebras did very well to down Olympia Warriors 4-1 at home at Wentworth Park through goals by Riley Dillon, Dwayne Walsh, Ryan Cook and Matthew Pace.
Kyle Vincent continued his fine form by netting the opener for the Warriors in the opening minutes.
NPL Tasmania
Devonport Strikers 6-1 Riverside Olympia
Clarence Zebras 4 (R Dillon, D Walsh, R Cook, M Pace) beat Olympia Warriors 1 (B Tilley)
Glenorchy Knights 3 (N Naden, N Mearns, S Kamara og) beat Kingborough Lions United 0
Launceston City 1-1 South Hobart
NPL Tasmania (As at 5 June 2021)
|
TEAM |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
Glenorchy Knights |
8 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
31 |
8 |
22 |
|
Devonport City |
9 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
18 |
9 |
19 |
|
South Hobart |
8 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
20 |
8 |
17 |
|
Kingborough Lions |
9 |
5 |
0 |
4 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
|
Olympia Warriors |
8 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
15 |
21 |
10 |
|
Clarence Zebras |
8 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
17 |
26 |
7 |
|
Launceston City |
8 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
6 |
23 |
4 |
|
Riverside Olympic |
8 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
12 |
25 |
1 |
Hobart United top the Southern Championship standings on goal difference after an impressive 4-0 away win over Glenorchy Knights at KGV Park.
Second-placed New Town White Eagles comfortably downed Beachside 3-1 at home at Clare Street, with Luke Huigsloot netting twice and Ben Whitehall once for the home side.
South East United have turned their fortunes around somewhat, beating Metro 3-0 in their latest outing.
Taroona went down 3-1 at home at Kelvedon Park to South Hobart.
“We lost to three sloppy goals,” said Taroona assistant coach, Nick Di Martino.
“Two were from set-pieces and one from poor marking and going with the runner, who was allowed to drive into the box and score in the far corner.
“Defending in the box is a real problem for us and with the height that we have, it’s not acceptable.
“That’s not only when defending corners and free-kicks, but we haven’t scored from an attacking corner all year.
“Not enough responsibility is being taken by players in both boxes.
“Then there are the one-on-one chances where we make poor decisions rather than making the right pass with a maximum chance of scoring.
“It’s been a pretty disappointing few weeks from us and we will find out what we are made of in the next few weeks after not having a game next weekend.”
University suffered a surprise 1-1 draw at home against Kingborough Lions United at Olinda Grove.
Olympia Warriors triumphed 4-1 away against Clarence Zebras at Wentworth Park.
In the Women’s Super League, Clarence Zebras showed that last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Olympia Warriors in the semi-finals of the State-wide Cup was a mere aberration as they thrashed the Warriors 6-1 at Wentworth Park.
Clarence Zebras occupy top spot on the ladder, while the Warriors are second.
South Hobart earned a feather in their cap by beating Launceston United 1-0, while Taroona and Kingborough Lions United drew 1-1 at Kelvedon Park.
4 comments:
I think that COVID has shown that Tassie really can't have a competition based solely based on local talent if they want to have a league to rival the rest of Australia.
One team might spend all the money to get all the players but why wouldn't you want a couple of hundred extra dollars a weeks to play football if you have no plans on making it your career?
FFT is complacent and have shown that they are in it for the money and not to progress the game
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the games every week for what it is, but sadly it is a Tassie league for Tasmanians, which has only regressed..at least the international folk betting on it have fun
Anon 9.39pm . You have obviously had a few too many.
COVID has not stopped Tassie having a competition at all. It may not be as good due to lack of imports but there is a competition running. What do you mean by 'rival ' the rest of Australia anyway. It never has. Not seriously anyway.
I hope you know what you mean by your second comment. Don't get your point.
At least the competition in Tassie is going unlike the Victorian one which was suspended.
FFT have a lot to answer for in respect to many things but I doubt that they can be blamed for the situation locally due to effects of COVID.
Yeah, I agree. I've spent years bashing FFT on here...and I can't believe I'm about to do this...but how can the current competition be FFT's fault. Do the clubs never have anything to take responsibility for...ever?
I could go on about clubs dont you worry, they deserve blame to but FFT aren't really pushing for changes to anything are they?
I also wasn't trying to link COVID or the situation to FFT so I do apologise for not making sense there...I meant that it is now so much clearer there isn't enough done to enhance the local talent or the want/drive to improve the league, it's only gone backwards since the Victory league started in 2013 (in my opinion)
There is a competition yes, unlike Victoria (for some reason that's relevant) but clubs seems to be happy lording things over other clubs in this weird incestuous arrogance to only be better than Tassie teams and not want to go the distance on a national level (when possible)
If the goal is to solely become a winning team in Tasmania and be the best in the state thats fine, then lets not bother participating in national competitions and isolate from the mainland entirely football wise
GO TEAM!!!
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