PlessPix

Mark Wakefield 

The Kingborough Lions brushed aside mid table rival Launceston City 4-1 today at the Lion's Den, Lightwood Park in a clinical performance. Goals from Danny Cowen, Joel Schuth, Shane Cartwright and Tom Mcdonald sealed the win for the Lions, whilst the lone goal for City came from the boot of Aaron Campbell. The win closes the gap between the two sides on the table to just 3 points with six rounds to play.

The opening half was relatively even in terms of chances between the two teams, but where the Lions showed their dominance was in their ability to make something of their chances. City were wasteful in front of goal, taking shots from wide angles and at other times, completely miscued.

The Lions had the better of the opening exchanges and earned a penalty in the 20th minute when Will Rodman blocked off the turning manoeuvre of Cartwright and impeded him in the box. Referee Kopra had no issue pointing to the spot. Cowen stepped up to take the penalty and bashed it home off the underside of the crossbar to make it 1-0.

In the 26th minute it was 2-0. A corner found it's way to Trent Pearce at the edge of the 18 yard box and his attempted volley went backwards to Schuth. Schuth hit a thunderous strike that left David Smith watching helplessly as it flew straight into the top right window from 35 yards out.

In the 32nd minute, Cartwright joined the party as a cross from Nathaniel Taylor, who had a great first half, evaded the City defence and gave the big striker time to take a touch and slot past Smith to make it 3-0.

In the 39th minute it looked as though City would pull one back as Aaron Leonard hit a shot on target only to be denied by a spectacular diving save from Grace, who somehow clawed the effort out of goals and away from danger.

In the second half, City got off to the flyer they were looking for in the 47th minute as Campbell lobbed an effort over Grace who had just made a save moments earlier, cutting the defecit to 3-1 .

The Lions were clearly disappointed to have conceded and made amends in the 58th minute when Cowen found a way to hit the crossbar from less than 6 yards out. Fortunately for him, the rebound bounced across the face of goals where Macdonald gladly nodded home to make it 4-1.

The remaining half hour petered out into an uninspiring display from both sides and the Lions held on for a solid win.

Cartwright, Mcdonald and Schuth were the Lions' best players, whilst Dom Rossi was the pick of the visitors.

Launceston City coach Lino Sciulli was disappointed with some aspects of the result, "First half was really, really poor."

"Happy with the second half, we fought it out."

"Yeah, definitely (I thought we were back in with the game when we scored to make it 3-1)."

Kingborough Lions coach Ian Shaw was pleased with the result, "It was a good win, I liked the way the boys played."

"Pleased with the commitment, we're trying to play footy."

"That's a win we played for...we stuck to our game plan."

"There is a lot of improvement (to be made)."