Victory rout bundles United out - September 11 2012

Victory rout bundles United out

 

Damen Francis

September 11 2012

Shepparton News

Cobram Victory has caused the biggest boilover of the inaugural Regional Premier League season, crushing Shepparton United 6-1 in Sunday’s preliminary final.

The minor premier and red-hot premiership favourite was beaten into submission by a slick and organised Victory unit to go spiralling out of the competition in straight sets.

The Victory’s high pressure game caused major problems for the Blues, who were uncharacteristically sloppy in possession and unable to move the ball out of defence with any conviction.

Victory coach Craig Carley masterminded the plan, but praised his players for executing it so successfully.

‘‘Tactically I thought we got it spot on,’’ Carley said.

‘‘We knew they liked to play the ball out of defence, so at training we set up to have the keeper firing balls out to the wingers and worked on closing them down as quickly as possible.

‘‘All credit to our boys, the discipline they have shown in the past five weeks has been amazing and their will to win is starting to show.’’

It was a disastrous start to the match for the Blues, as Carley tapped home Jamie England’s square pass to open the scoring inside five minutes.

The Victory doubled their lead a short time later, when Carley was fouled in the box at a corner and England stepped up to slot home the resulting spot kick.

A fightback was expected and after a lively opening to the second half, United pegged one back, albeit in slightly dubious circumstances.

Blues striker Jamie Gosling appeared to step on the ball and lost his footing, but the referee deemed it a foul by Teon Haywood and pointed to the spot.

Gosling buried the penalty to make it 2-1.

However, instead of United going on with the job, the Victory hit them on the counter, with Carley racing onto a through-ball and sliding home.

It proved the killer blow, as the Victory ran riot with three more goals.

First, a mistake at the back allowed Carley to seal his hat-trick, before the same player was brought down by Blues keeper Manny Papastamatis, who was promptly dismissed with a red card.

England once again coolly sent the spot kick past substitute keeper Jake Keating.

Victory fullback Adam Gatcum completed the rout, with a cracking finish from the edge of the area.

The Blues did create chances going forward, but time and again the final ball was lacking.

Carley said the performance of central defensive trio Haywood, Josh Walmsley and Cameron Miles was crucial, and also praised the efforts of Marc Startari, who took the place of injured midfielder Matt Gray.

‘‘Marc stepped in and did a fantastic job, I’ve said all year if he applied himself a lot better he would have played a lot more this season,’’ Carley said.

‘‘It was unfortunate for United, they had a great season to win the minor premiership and they would be disappointed to go out in straight sets like that.’’

The Victory will meet Shepparton in Saturday’s grand final at Deakin Reserve.




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