If Glenorchy Knights lose to South Hobart next Sunday, the NPL Tasmania title race will be all but over.
Devonport Strikers currently hold a 4-point lead over second-placed Knights, while South Hobart are a distant third, 11 point adrift of Devonport.
A loss for Knights and a win for Devonport will effectively wrap up the title for the reigning champions.
I mean, how could Devonport possibly lose to Riverside Olympic at home at Valley Road?
Riverside also have their coach suspended, which indicates all is not hunk dory at the club.
Last weekend, Devonport absolutely thrashed Launceston City away at Prospect.
They won 8-1 and Roberto Garrido hit five goals. Brody Denehey, Luke Bennett and Fahim Moradi got the other goals.
Launceston City were woeful and coaches Daniel Syson and Nathan Pitchford will have to go back to the drawing board as this was not a performance worthy of such a famous club.
Knights kept hot on Devonport’s heels with a 6-1 away win over Riverside Olympic at Windsor Park.
Captain Eli Luttmer netted a hat-trick, while Adam Gorrie, Jaxon Richardson and an own goal by Campbell Young completed Knights’ tally.
Riley Wakeford scored Riverside’s consolation goal.
Kingborough Lions United were simply unable to handle the windy conditions at the Twin Ovals in Kingston and went down 2-1 to the visiting Clarence Zebras.
Playing with the wind in the first half, the Lions kept over-hitting their passes and losing possession against a Clarence Zebras outfit that actually benefited from playing into the strong wind.
Kingborough suffered a blow before 15 minutes had elapsed when experienced central defender Greg Downes was injured an had to be replaced. Downes appeared to injure a leg when he miscued a forward pass. After treatment by physio Roan Gillam, Downes went off and was replaced by player-coach Alfred Hess.
Argentine import Xuan Cappellino opened the scoring for the visitors on the half-hour when he met a cross from the left by Riley Dillon and forced the ball over the line with the goalkeeper stranded. Eisa Azizi was in goal for Kingborough, who seem to rotate goalkeepers regularly. Roan Gillam, Lee Mackie and Azizi seem to take it in turns.
When asked about this at Monday’s press conference, Kingborough’s player-coach Alfred Hess said rotation had been necessary at times due to injury or unavailability.
Kingborough looked much better in the second half playing against the wind and strung together some excellent attacking moves involving up to eight passes on the ground.
But, it was the visitors who extended their lead when Jacob Huigsloot conceded a penalty in the 51st minute with a foul on Cappellino.
The Argentine took the spot-kick himself and drilled it past Azizi and into the bottom right-hand corner to make it 2-0.
Kingborough finally scored in the last minute through Kobe Kemp to make the score slightly more respectable, but it was still a case of a lost 3 points.
South Hobart found the windy conditions difficult against the visiting Launceston United at South Hobart Oval and missed some glorious openings in the early stages of the game.
But, a first-half hat-trick by Jackson Dent in the space of 8 minutes killed off United and settles South’s nerves.
Nick Morton finally found the net 7 minutes after the interval to make it 4-0, but he should have scored many more and was clearly frustrated and angry at himself.
Sam Berezansky added the fifth in the 69th minute before Launceston United showed how easy it could be to breach the home side’s defence.
In the 78th minute, Angelo Amato beat Jack Bowman for pace and fired home from outside the box to make it 5-1.
South had thrown on a couple of youngsters by this stage and one of them, Daniel Arnaiz, scored their sixth goal a minute from the end.
NPL Tasmania
Kingborough Lions United 1 (K Kemp 90+3) lost to Clarence Zebras 2 (X Cappellino 31, 51 pen)
South Hobart 6 (J Dent 3, S Berezansky, N Morton, D Arnaiz) beat Launceston United 1 (
Riverside Olympic 1 lost to Glenorchy Knights 6 (E Luttmer 3, J Richardson 2, A Gorrie)
Launceston City 1 (T Simeoni 83) lost to Devonport Strikers 8 (R Garrido 20, 27, 36, 42 pen, 54, B Denehey 32, L Bennett 68, F Moradi 73)
NPL Tasmania (As at 17 June 2023)
|
TEAM |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
Devonport Strikers |
10 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
37 |
8 |
28 |
|
Glenorchy Knights |
10 |
8 |
0 |
2 |
22 |
4 |
24 |
|
South Hobart |
10 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
28 |
17 |
17 |
|
Clarence Zebras |
10 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
24 |
19 |
17 |
|
Launceston City |
10 |
5 |
1 |
4 |
17 |
18 |
16 |
|
Kingborough Lions |
10 |
4 |
0 |
6 |
34 |
21 |
12 |
|
Riverside Olympic |
10 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
5 |
46 |
3 |
|
Launceston United |
10 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
7 |
41 |
0 |
1 comment:
Can't believe the bias refs gave Devonport another win!
"Launnie could have won" - Pinocchio
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