Impressive facilities at Blundstone Arena for FFA Cup match

Photo:  The goals have been erected at Blundstone Arena [PlessPix]

South Hobart and Marconi Stallions both had light training sessions at Blundstone Arena on Tuesday evening.

The two teams meet at Blundstone on Wednesday at 7.30pm in the Round-of-32 of the FFA Cup.

The dressing rooms and facilities at Blundstone are impressive.

They show clearly the inadequacies of local football venues such as KGV Park.

Photo:  South Hobart coach Ken Morton before training on Tuesday evening [PlessPix]

The dressing rooms are spacious and there are areas in which to limber up before even entering the playing arena.

Post-match, there is a large pool beside the dressing room in which the water can be adjusted to be either ice cold or very warm.

The excellent flood lighting at Blundstone will make the game a spectacle for local fans, who are more used to seeing teams chasing shadows at KGV Park.

Photo:  The limbering-up area beside the South Hobart dressing room  [PlessPix]

The two squads are:

South Hobart: 1. Kieran Brown (GK), 2. Tae Evans, 3. Reilly Morton, 4. Jack Bowman, 5. Hugh Ludford, 6. Loic Feral, 7. Nick Morton, 8. Samuel Berezansky, 9. Darcy Hall, 10. Alex Walter, 11. Ben Hamlett, 12. Bradley Lakoseljac, 13. Ewan Larby, 14. Gilly De Souza, 15. Declan Foley, 16. Oscar Thomas, 17. Kasper Hallam, 18. Samuel Tooze, 19.  Tobias Herweynen,  (?) Samson Juju, 21. Graham Wright (GK)

Marconi Stallions: 1. Nenad Vekic (GK), 2. Nathan Millgate, 3. Giorgio Speranza, 4. Roberto Speranza, 5. James Baldacchino, 7. Sean O’Connell, 8. Connor Evans, 9. Anthony Frangie, 10. Marko Jesic, 11. Mitchell Mallia, 12. James Andrew, 13. Yianni Nicolaou, 14. Peter Pelekanos, 15. Lachlan Sepping, 16. Liam Youlley, 17. Kristian Sekutkoski (GK), 19. Zachary Cairncross, 20. Richard Cardozo, 23. Brandon Vella, 28. Martin Fernandez, 30. Paolo Laxamana, 31. Christian Nascimben, 33. Andrew Holder, 39. Mason Ingram, 52. Damian Tsekenis

Photo:  Mark Moncur wishes he was donning the Number 1 shirt [PlessPix]

Photo:  South Hobart coach Ken Morton in his team's dressing room [PlessPix]

Photo:  The warm and cold pools beside the dressing room [PlessPix]

Morton back from reconnaissance trip to Sydney

Photo:  Blundstone Arena is the venue for Wednesday's game [PlessPix]

South Hobart coach Ken Morton travelled to Sydney on Sunday to watch Marconi Stallions play Sydney Olympic in the NSW NPL competition.

He was a guest of former Football Federation Tasmania CEO John Boulous, who is now CEO of Sydney Olympic.

Marconi won the game 1-0 at Olympic’s home, Belmore Sports Ground.

Marconi are in fifth place on the ladder and Sydney Olympic are sixth.

Morton said Marconi were a physical outfit who played direct football and who were strong at set-pieces.

Their two centre-backs were tall and powerful and they used fast wingers who utilised the width of the pitch.

Long throw-ins were often used effectively.

Given South Hobart’s vulnerability at set-pieces this season, Marconi may exploit this weakness tomorrow night when the sides meet at Blundstone Arena at 7.30pm in the FFA Cup Round-of-32 contest.

Both teams will train at Blundstone Arena today.

Marconi arrived in Hobart today and will be staying at the Ibis Hotel and they will train at Blundstone from 5-6pm.

South Hobart will train at Blundstone from 6-7pm.

Photo:  Blundstone Arena at Bellerive in Tasmania [PlessPix]

Launceston City lose keeper Clark as they succumb to South Hobart

Photo:  South Hobart keeper Graeme Wright takes a cross [PlessPix]

(NPL Tasmania, South Hobart Oval, Saturday, 27 July 2019)

South Hobart 4 (N Morton 19, K Kemp 61, 71, A Walters 62)

Launceston City 1 (N Mies 77)

HT:  1-0   Att:  110   Ref:  T Peart

South Hobart:  Wright  -  Bowman, Foley, Kemp, Herweynen  -  Feral, Morton, Lakoseljac  -  Berezansky, Hamlett, Walter  (Subs:  K Brown, Gorrie, Evans, Hallam, Kurdistan)

Launceston City:  Clark  -  Linger, Goold, Mattarozzi, Dwyer  -  Mitreski, Murray, Ottavi  -  Degetto, Mies, Hancox  (Subs:  Aitken, Oh, Thorne)

Photo:  South Hobart's Ben Hamlett takes on Launceston City's Aaron Mattarozzi [PlessPix]

This was South Hobart’s last hit-out before they take on Marconi Stallions on Wednesday in the FFA Cup Round-of-32 at Blundstone Arena.

Coach Ken Morton was due to travel to Sydney on Sunday on a scouting mission to watch Marconi play Sydney Olympic.

Adam Gorrie was left on the bench, but did come on later.  He misses the Marconi game through suspension.

Kieran Brown, who was on the bench, will soon take up a football scholarship in the U.S.A. and so Graeme Wright is now the preferred goalkeeper for South Hobart.

Siyar Kurdistan, who coaches South Hobart’s Challenge League side, was also on the bench and made an appearance.

Kasper Hallam was kept on the bench, probably in readiness for Wednesday night.

Photo:  City keeper Lachlan Clark beats Nick Morton to the ball [PlessPix]

Kobe Kemp was in the South Hobart line-up after returning from a sting in Victoria and he weighed in with two goals.

It took South almost 20 minutes to hit the front.  Nick Morton cut in from the left and planted his shot past the diving Lachlan Clark and inside the far right-hand post.

Launceston City had their hands full defending and rarely got a sight of goal at the other end.  A shot by MacKenzie Hancox and saved by Wright near the end of the first half was their only attempt on goal.

Clark earned his keep with some skilful saves.  He was beaten on another occasion by Sam Berezansky, but the effort was ruled out because of off-side.

Photo:  South Hobart's Loic Feral wins a header [PlessPix]

Two goals in 2 minutes just past the hour mark by Kemp and Alex Walter killed off any faint chance that City may have had of getting back into this game.

In the 61^st minute, Kemp hammered home Ben Hamlett’s pass, while in the 62^nd minute, Alex Walter raced in from the right and placed a low drive inside the far left-hand post to make it 3-0.

To add to City’s misery, Clark was concussed when he went down at Hamlett’s feet.  Although he continued for several minutes after treatment, he had to go off in the 65^th minute, and with no substitute keeper on the bench, Aaron Mattarozzi took over in goal.  Nicholas Thorne came on as an outfield player.

Photo:  Nick Morton climbs and wins a header [PlessPix]

Mattarozzi had only been in goal for 6 minutes when he was picking the ball out of the net, Kemp having drilled home a shot after a short-corner.

City, however, had a sting in the tail.  In the 76^th minute, Scott Murray won the ball and sent Noah Mies away in the inside-right channel and he finished beautifully past Wright to net a consolation goal for the visitors.

Clark looked dazed after the match and he is likely to be missing for a few weeks at least following his concussion.

Photo:  Launceston City goalkeeper coach Kerry Dennis assists Lachlan Clark from the field [PlessPix] 

Photo:  South Hobart's Tobias Herweynen crosses the ball [PlessPix]