Jamie Richardson reporting 

Devonport left it late before Brayden Mann headed home a corner in the 87th minute to send the defending Champions to the top of the table with a 1-0 win over Launceston City.

Launceston City made Devonport work for their 3 points today with the visitors looking to erase the demons of last week’s 6 nil drubbing at the hands of Glenorchy Knights. the first half was quite an even affair with both teams looking to attack one another on the heavy Valley Road pitch.

City going for a 5-4-1 tactic looked to stifle the space of Mann, Fischer and Holden not allowing them space to operate in and it proved effective for large parts of the game with a lot of opportunities blocked, forced wide or snuffed out by the excellent Lachlan Clarke in goals.

The score going into half time was 0-0 and a sense of ‘what top 4, bottom 4?’ was creeping in with City looking every chance of coming away with an unlikely result from Valley Road.

Whatever was said in the Devonport dressing rooms at half time certainly kicked them into gear or maybe it was the introduction of club legend Chris McKenna that sparked the Strikers into gear.

The Strikers veteran was immediately in the thick of things as Fischer fed McKenna in space just outside the box, he shaped to fire on his famed left boot but perhaps a bit stiff from just coming out of the sheds and off the bench he uncharacteristically fired well wide and high.

Enter Lachlan Clarke for City who made two good saves in the space of a minute. The first from a Mann free kick at the top of the box the second from a corner that landed at Fischer’s feet and struck at Clarke from point black range.

The Strikers were ruthless about the way they went about their business in the final third and if it wasn’t for City’s keeper Lachlan Clarke it could have been three or four nil not long after the restart. The Strikers piled in the chances and it looked like Fischer was going to send them into the lead when he got the better of Gould and rounded Clarke but his touch sent him wide and he cannoned his shot into the crossbar.

On the 80th minute mark Mann was then denied by Clarke as his free kick just outside the box looked to be heading into the top corner until the flying Clarke saved brilliantly to keep the Strikers at bay.

As full time edged ever closer it looked like City would hang on and come away with a point from the Portress but Mann as he has done so many times over the years would have his say eventually…

Devonport finally broke the deadlock with only minutes left on the clock and it came through the old trusty Devonport way, a set piece. Last roll of the dice possibly Reynolds whipped the corner into the mixer and ‘Cometh the moment, cometh the Mann.’ as Mann leapt highest and expertly glanced it goalward. This time Clarke had no answer and could only watch it bounce into the unguarded part of the goal. The frustration the Strikers had endured for close to 90 minutes was washed away as Mann wheeled away in celebration. It proved the goal that ultimately ended up sending the men from Devonport back to the top of the table as we head into the second half of the season.

Strikers Coach, Chris Gallo was somewhat happy with the result but wasn’t overly pleased with his sides performance and finding out they went top of the table he downplayed any title chances and any focus on what the other teams are doing around them.

“It was a good result overall but it was a difficult game because we were out of sync but there was no excuses we weren’t good enough today and they were very good.”

“We didn’t even know (Olympia losing 6-2 to South), I had no idea, I had to focus on this game  and it’s the old cliché really it’s just one game at a time cause you have to. For example Launceston City lost 6 nil and they come back and put up a good fight fair play to them this is why you play the game, such a great game.”

“I’m just so proud of the boys Holden, Mann, Zaikos, Smith, Reynolds first class it’s great for us but I don’t think Launceston City should go back disappointed because they put on a great fight.”

For City it was an improved performance on the back of two drubbings in the last 2 weeks and coach Ben Brookfield was happy with how his players responded.

“It was a better performance, we decided to try something different and change the formation a little to what we’ve been doing, as we know Devonport are a good side and play Valley Road very well, so we didn’t want to give the likes of Mann, Holden and Fischer much space to operate in at all.”

“I thought young Lachlan Clarke was outstanding in goal for us today it’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t hold out for those last 3 minutes and cap off a top performance with a clean sheet. But we’ll look to move on and try and build on this to the next critical match against Northern Rangers back at Buckby Land Rover Park.”