The biggest beneficiary of the weekend’s NPL Tasmania results was Devonport Strikers, the reigning champions and current ladder leaders.
They beat second-last Riverside Olympic 2-0 at home at Valley Road with two second-half goals.
Roberto Garrido gave the Strikers the lead 3 minutes after half-time, while Brody Denehey sealed the win with a goal in the 56th minute.
Everyone expected a bloodbath, but credit to Riverside for limiting the damage.
Second-ranked Glenorchy Knights lost ground when they lost 4-3 to fourth-placed South Hobart at South Hobart Oval on Sunday,
The attendance was good and showed once again that top NPL games on a Sunday are a real drawcard for football fans.
The NPL games are often only on Saturdays and, on occasion, on Friday nights. I reckon a lot of people want NPL on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays. The alternative fare on Sundays is often not very appealing.
Knights struck after only 3 minutes, a brilliant one-two putting Nick Naden into the box, and he fired past South Hobart keeper Nick O’Connell to give the visitors a shock lead.
Nick Morton equalised midway through the first half after a low left-wing cross caught the Knights defence wrong-footed.
Daniel Sagno restored the Knights’ lead in the 27th minute, smashing the ball into an empty net after O’Connell failed to hold a shot from the left and parried it into Sagno’s path.
Tobias Herweynen made it 2-2 at the break when he got to a high ball from a corner in a crowded penalty area and nodded it home, despite a valiant effort by Knights keeper Jackson Gardner to punch it clear. Gardner ended up in the back of the net and despite protests that he was fouled. Referee Mr Coad was having none of it.
South Hobart took the lead for the first time in the 51st minute when Iskander Van Doorne finished clinically from an angle on the left, but Knights weren’t done yet and Naden marked his return from a lengthy break through injury by levelling at 3-3 in the 58th minute.
Tactical and personnel changes at half-time by South Hobart coach Ken Morton turned the tide in his team’s favour.
The injured centre-back Jack Bowman was replaced by Eduardo Castaneda, who went into midfield, enabling the excellent Jacob Lancaster to move to centre-back and partner Reilly Morton.
The Knights attack was blunted and South Hobart gained the ascendancy.
The master stroke came 5 minutes from the end when Jackson Dent came on for Van Doorne. Dent had scored a hat-trick last week and must have been unlucky to start on the bench.
He isn’t one to spurn such opportunities and a minute from the end he controlled a deep cross from the right by Herweynen to the far left-hand side of the penalty area. Dent appeared to trip over the ball, but this had the benefit of tricking the Knights defender marking him. Dent recovered and chipped the ball over Gardner and inside the far right-hand corner of the net for the winner.
All the pieces came together for Clarence Zebras as they wiped the floor with bottom-side Launceston United at home at Wentworth Park.
United were without Angelo Amato, who had scored their only goal in the 6-1 loss to South Hobart last week, and David Owusu. The pair is believed to have been injured in a car accident during the week.
The visitors were up against it from the start and Clarence Zebras’ new Canadian import, Ryely Wishart set up the opening goal for Argentine import, Xuan Cappellino, after just 40 seconds.
It got worse. In the 7th minute, United goalkeeper Greg Duffy broke his right leg while making a challenge on the onrushing Curtis Miley. The keeper was clearly in a great deal of pain and its fortunate that both clubs have qualified first-aid staff. Duffy was stretchered off, but it took the ambulance more than an hour to arrive.
To add insult to injury, Duffy’s challenge was deemed a foul on Miley and Clarence Zebras were awarded a penalty, which was easily despatched by Wishart in the 10th minute. What better way to announce your arrival as an import?
In the 26th minute, Wishart showed his class. He attacked down the left and cut in towards goal before unleashing a cracking shot from a seemingly impossible angle, the ball beating replacement keeper Aidan Piper and going in off the inside of the far right-hand post to make it 3-0 for the home side.
Five minutes later, Riley Dillon added Clarence Zebras’ fourth, while in the 35th minute, Jayden Hey, the new signing from South Hobart, left Piper stranded out of his goal and rolled the ball home unopposed to make it 5-0.
United replied through Will Spicer a minute after Hey’s goal, but it really was like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke trying to stop the cascade of water that was inevitably coming to flood the land.
Six minutes after the resumption, Wishart completed his hat-trick in an impressive debut that revealed he can play either right wing or left wing effectively.
The contest then became the Riley Dillon show as he completed his hat-trick and went on to score a fourth goal, too. In between, he had a penalty saved by Piper.
It was a good display by Clarence Zebras and their three imports were impressive, but one must remember it was against an under-strength bottom team. There are some sterner tests on the way for Brett Pullen’s team.
In the remaining game of Round 11, Kingborough Lions United travelled to Prospect in Launceston and downed Launceston City 2-0 through second-half goals by Greg Downes and Kobe Kemp, the latter scoring in the final minute.
It was nothing for the Lions to get excited about, but at least yielded 3 valuable points.
NPL Tasmania (As at 25 June 2023)
|
TEAM |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
Devonport Strikers |
11 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
39 |
8 |
31 |
|
Glenorchy Knights |
11 |
8 |
0 |
3 |
25 |
8 |
24 |
|
Clarence Zebras |
11 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
33 |
20 |
20 |
|
South Hobart |
11 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
32 |
20 |
20 |
|
Launceston City |
11 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
17 |
20 |
16 |
|
Kingborough Lions |
11 |
5 |
0 |
6 |
36 |
21 |
15 |
|
Riverside Olympic |
11 |
1 |
0 |
10 |
5 |
48 |
3 |
|
Launceston United |
11 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
8 |
50 |
0 |
14 comments:
Cracking game knights should have won they were the better team in both halves south are sensational they are the best team to watch Ken does it every year
With out Gardner Knights would be 5th
Without garrido Devonport wouldn't be cup champions without cappelino or Morton south and Clarence wouldn't be there either stupid comment
Not,at all stupid. He's that important to Knights. Your reply however shows a lack of a real football brain.
Can't argue with stupid you win pal
I wonder what the verdict at the tribunal will be tonight. all I know is that this is a sad situation.
From all the talk this will be very interesting.
What’s up at the tribunal tonight ?
Let’s have 5 years of Absolutely No Imports allowed and have a home grown state league
Oh dear, if I was to believe everything on here, isn’t the standard rubbish or something? Don’t the teams need more depth? Removing all the imports’ll fix that...oh dear!
The notion of a "no imports" rule is absolute peak stupidity.
They increase the standard of the competition which can only be good for young player's development, playing in tougher games, not to mention the work they do with the club's youth players in directly developing them at training sessions given most tend to be employed by the club in that role whilst they are here.
It's not like good young players aren't getting opportunities to play presently either, our league is already insanely young compared with every other state. It's already far too young if anything. If you have any promise you are getting a look in as it stands.
All that banning imports would do is lead to fewer NPL standard players getting games to fill those slots, lowering the standard of play as well as leaving our side that gets through to the Australia Cup with absolutely no chance.
I reckon the EPL ban imports too. Focus on developing the UK talent for a bit!
Let's ban local players and go with an all-import league; that would be fun to watch.
Actually not a bad idea at all old mate
Knights started so well - That first 10-15 minutes fantastic. 4-3-3, free flowing, give-and-goes, rotations. Then, a goal up, coach starts screaming aggressively, and the players went into their shell. Why stress the players out? They were playing like a champion team. Credit to South, they pushed their full backs on and Knights had to make a decision whether to press and prevent the switch at the source or have their wingers track the full backs all the way. So, told to get back in their shells, Knights ended up in a back six and the centre mids were run ragged trying to press South still. This approach made it so so easy for South. Why not continue to press as a team and prevent the easy outs like they were doing in the first 10/15? Instead they allowed South more time to build up their play, to get comfortable, and then when Knights did win the ball they were 80m from their own goal. Second half they went to a back five and played conservative hit-and-hope ball to the two strikers.. Knights clearly fielded the more senior, experienced, in-their-prime players, surely allow them to go out and do their thing against the up and coming South team. A strange watch. That's my 2 cents.
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