IC- South Hobart FC

South Hobart 8 (L Quaile 2’, 48’, A Leszczynski 11’, 86’, N Morton 34’, A Walter 66’, 90+3’, Sculthorpe 81’) Launceston City 1 (A Campbell 74’)

Mark Wakefield

South Hobart wiped the floor with Launceston City at Darcy Street this afternoon, sending 8 goals past David Smith on the way to a thumping 8-1 victory. South had fielded a lineup consisting of at least half of a second string eleven and it proved no hindrance to being able to perform fluently. Alex Leszczynski was the star for South, notching two stunning goals and setting up at least one more as they moved up to second on the NPL TAS table.

South got off to a blazing start, scoring in the 2nd minute. Alex Walter leapt high in the middle of the park, heading a goal kick from Smith back towards their attacking half. A City defender tried to header it away, only managing a glancing effort that Liam Quaile ran onto before hitting a blistering strike from 25 yards out that cannoned sweetly into the bottom left of the goals.

It was 2-0 in the 11th minute after Leszczynski hit a curling, dipping free kick into the top left window with Smith only able to watch as it hit the underside of the crossbar before nestling in the back of the net.

In the 34th minute it was 3-0, this time Leszczynski turned provider, knocking a powerful cross into the danger zone that was met by Morton, who side footed home from 6 yards out to cap off what was a stellar opening half from the hosts.

It only got better in the second half as Launceston City came out of the sheds asleep after the break. In the 48th minute, Quaile managed to snaffle his second for the game as his mistimed shot found a way past everyone and into the bottom right corner of the goals to make it 4-0.

In the 50th minute, Leszczynski won and then took a penalty for South. His shot from the spot was well saved by Smith who then followed up to deny Walter with another diving save within a second.

In the 66th minute it was 5-0 as Walter somehow found himself free inside the 6 yard box off a corner, tapping home to score his first of the afternoon.

City pulled a consolation goal back in the 74th minute, Aaron Campbell doing well to drive past a defender before curling an effort into the bottom right to make it 5-1.

South showed no mercy and in the 81st minute they made it 6-1. Substitute Pajari Sculthorpe scored with his second touch of the game after a sumptuous through ball by Kemp released him in the inside right channel.

In the 86th minute it was 7-1 as Leszczynski scored another stunning goal – this time from the left hand side of the field, from about 25 yards out. He unleashed a curling effort once more towards the top right window. Smith got a hand to it but could only manage to push it into the back of his own net.

Then, just when the crowd was starting to relax, Walter scored another stunner in the 92nd minute. He unleashed a bullet of a strike that nestled in a top corner of the net to round at the scoring at 8-1 in a  dominant performance for South Hobart.

It was a brilliant performance from South Hobart – they were strong, fast, decisive and deadly in front of goals with what most would say was somewhat a second-string starting eleven. But based on this, they will have no problems with depth should more injuries and unavailability strike.

Leszczynski was the star of the show but he was extremely well supported by South’s midfield trio of Alex Walter, Nick Morton and Kobe Kemp.

On a chilly afternoon it was pretty hard to find any winners in the Launceston City lineup. They were hammered for most of the game by the makeshift South Hobart eleven. To their credit they stuck at it and managed to reel off a few nice passages of play, but more often than not these ended up in shots well off target when better efforts should have been managed.

South Hobart coach Ken Morton was pleased with his team’s performance, “yeah a good result for us today.”

“Alex Walter is a talented player…he’s in good form, we’re happy with his progress.”

“A good result for us and a good performance.”

“I think overall we were too strong for them.”

Launceston City coach Lino Sciulli was disappointed with the result, “it was a disappointing result, we were beat by a very good side though, a very well polished side.”

“We had a lot of changes today…. they didn’t work out for us today.”

“South are very good, we were just there today.”