Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Lions slump again while Knights shore up pole position

Photo:  Devonport's Riku Ichimura crosses as Clarence Zebras' Tom McKernan (left) and Joshua Mathie try to block. [PlessPix] 

Glenorchy Knights retained top spot on the NPL Tasmania standings after Round 15 with an easy 7-0 away win over wooden spooners Launceston United at Birch Avenue on Saturday.

Riley Dillon and Joshua Redfearn each scored a brace, while Matthew Brkic, Stefan Cordwell and Dimitris Theodorou all chimed in with a goal apiece.

Launceston United have lost all 15 of their games and their impressive past back in the 1960s is just a distant memory.

Events have overtaken them and it is clear that they are out of their depth in present company.

Photo:  Xuan Cappellino has scored against his former club. [PlessPix] 

Reigning champions Devonport City moved up a place into third with a comfortable 6-0 away win over second-last Clarence Zebras at Wentworth Park on Saturday.

Three goals in each half did the trick for the visitors.

Tall striker Xuan Cappellino punished his former club with two headed goals, while the others came from Riku Ichimura, Masi Benjamin, captain Kieran Mulraney and Mitchell Burley.

Devonport goalkeeper Mitchell Higgins, who started the season with Clarence Zebras before transferring to Devonport, has little to do against his former team-mates.

Photo:  Clarence Zebras' keeper Jake Hayers challenges Xuan Cappellino in the air. [PlessPix] 

Clarence Zebras’ new goalkeeper, Jake Hayers, signed recently from South Hobart, had a torrid baptism of fire on his senior debut, conceding half a dozen.

Kingborough Lions United, as they do so often, slumped to a defeat after recent promising performances.

They had moved to third, but slipped back to fourth after losing 4-1 at home to second-placed South Hobart at the ridiculous time of 6.30pm on Saturday night in mid-winter.

Kingborough’s women’s team have been known to complain if they are relegated to so-called curtain-raiser games and not given top billing.  Now is the time to promote them to the main event and we can see just how many people would show up to watch them if they were the main billing at 6.30pm on a freezing Saturday night.

Photo:  Xuan Cappellino heads just wide. [PlessPix] 

South Hobart toyed with the Lions and led 3-0 at half-time through goals by Bradley Lakoseljac, Harrison Oates and an own-goal by Eli Luttmer on the stroke of half-time.

Kobe Kemp, a former South Hobart star, pulled a goal back for the Lions early in the second half, but young substitute Rex Maddock sealed the issue with a fine goal 7 minutes from the end and shortly after coming on.

On Friday night in Launceston, Launceston City conceded a goal to Riverside Olympic’s William Coert midway through the first half.

The visitors then shot themselves in the foot by having one of their best players, Gediminas Krusa sent off shortly after the resumption.

Thierry Swaby equalised for City just past the hour-mark, but an own-goal by the unfortunate William Prince with a quarter of an hour left completed an unfortunate evening for Riverside, who had started so promisingly.

Photo:  Xuan Cappellino and Jeremy Price in a aerial duel. [PlessPix] 

 NPL Tasmania

Launceston City 2 (Thierry Swaby 62’, William Prince 75’ og) beat Riverside Olympic 1 (William Coert 22’)

Clarence Zebras 0 lost to Devonport City 6 (Riku Ichimura 23’, Xuan Cappellino 26’, 31’, Masi Benjamin 46’, Kieran Mulraney 51’, Mitchell Burley 83’)

Launceston United 0 lost to Glenorchy Knights 7 (Riley Dillon 1’, 52’, Matthew Brkic 6’, Stefan Cordwell 53’, Joshua Redfearn 56’, 74’, Dimitris Theodorou 66’)

Kingborough Lions United 1 (Kobe Kemp 54’) lost to South Hobart 4 (Bradley Lakoseljac 5’, Harrison Oates 10’, Eli Luttmer 45’+3 og, Rex Maddock 83’)

Photo:  Devonport's Liam Kelly gives Cade Smith a glimpse of his skills. [PlessPix] 

 NPL Tasmania Standings (As at 26 July 2024)

TEAM

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

Glenorchy Knights

15

10

4

1

64

16

34

South Hobart

15

9

5

1

43

20

32

Devonport City

15

8

5

2

41

17

29

Kingborough Lions

15

8

3

4

49

32

27

Launceston City

15

7

3

5

28

21

24

Riverside Olympic

15

4

1

10

24

50

13

Clarence Zebras

15

3

1

11

23

42

10

Launceston United

15

0

0

15

9

80

0

Photo:  Kane Hatcher tries to get to the ball ahead of Riku Ichimura. [PlessPix]

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tail wagging the dog at Kingborough , still!

Anonymous said...

Walter, would you happen to have a problem with KLUFC? Every time they lose, it occurs you post an extra blog midweek talking the club down. Just curious why? Would anyone else care to share?

Anonymous said...

Surely the obvious solution is to play some more games on Sunday? Why are there so few Sunday games this year? I can understand why travelling teams like Devonport don't want them as it's quite late for them to get back home, but surely when it's two southern teams playing each other you just put one of them on Sunday rather than at night in the freezing cold. Last Saturday night the choice was to either stay out late and get hypothermia or stay home and cop the god-awful commentators on the Live Stream. Stellar stuff as usual FFT!

Anonymous said...

Look back through the blogs, Walter published a blog re NPL nearly every week sometime between Monday to Friday. Obv not last week as there were no games???

Anonymous said...

For example: https://walterplessonsoccer.blogspot.com/2024/07/inconsistency-is-name-of-game.html?m=1

Anonymous said...

K'boro have conceded 32 goals in 15 league games.

You're always going to struggle with those numbers.

Some solid performances on the road but their home form has been awful.

Anonymous said...

Interesting opinion on women’s football there Walt

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure he writes a wrap up post of the previous weekend NPL matches almost every week. Maybe it just feels that way because KLUFC are losing so often lately…

Anonymous said...

Give Kingborough time, they have proven to be able to beat sides above them. Results come with hard work

Anonymous said...

Walter always gives wrap ups of the games in the mid-week. He always gives his honest opinion and doesn't pull any punches. Smacks of sour grapes coming from down the outlet to be complaining about it

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have any numbers on the golden boot so far this year?

Anonymous said...

Kobe kemp on 20 goals as the leader, once again proving to be the greatest footballer in Tasmania and to ever grace the state. Build the man a statue already. Absolute brilliance.

Anonymous said...

Get over yourself, donr be so precious