Jamie Richardson IC- South Hobart FC

South Hobart travelled up the Midlands Highway to face a Launceston City side that they had wiped the floor with in the last couple of outings. While they didn’t have it all their own way on this occasion, a 10 minute period in which they scored four goals helped powered them to a 5-0 win over the hosts to mark a comprehensive clean sweep over City in 2016.

The Mitsubishi Park pitch was pretty heavy and not entirely conducive to the possession, high tempo football that South typically plays and from the first whistle it was an open and entertaining match.

For the first 23 minutes it was end to end with neither team completely dominated general play. It was City that were looking the more likely to score, their attacking midfield trio of Campbell, Linger and Degetto accompanied by Rossi were really taking it up to South when they were dribbling at pace. They almost grabbed the opener when an attacking corner was whipped in and fell to Nathan Butler in around the 6 yard box and the central defender put it over the bar, moments later Campbell volleyed an effort onto the crossbar that Wilson was well and truly beaten for.

South then grabbed the opener on 23 minutes, somewhat against the run of play when Ben Hamlett cut in from the left and trickled one low into the back post to give South the lead.

All it took was that goal and all of a sudden that kicked South Hobart into life as they lifted. Five minutes later they added to their tally when Loic Feral from out wide snuck one in that may have been a cross, rather than a shot.

Barely four minutes later they were at it again, South making it 3-0 when Alex Walter’s shot was saved by Smith but fell to Jack Turner who coolly finished.

Straight after the restart Alex Leszczynski made it 4-0 when he fired home with the outside of his boot from the edge of the 18 yard box, beating Smith and nestling into the roof of the net. South were running hot and looked like running away with the game.

The second half couldn’t come any sooner for Sciulli’s men as they needed to regroup and to City’s credit they got their structure back that eluded them for the last half of the first half. The second half was a relatively open end to end affair with South shading the general play City were determined not to let South have it all their own way.

Hess was brought on for Leszczynski and looked lively up front almost getting on the scoresheet as soon as he came on. Eventually South’s persistence was rewarded and they added their 5th goal when Loic Feral skipped past Rossi and crossed to Jack Turner who made no mistake finishing past Smith. From there on the game petered out with the odd cross into the box for City and forward forays for South but nothing to threaten the scoreboard as the rain, wind and freezing cold weather started to set in!

Alex Walter was a constant thorn for City and his runs into the box and out wide was causing headaches all game. South’s defence were led well by the young man mountain of Oscar Thomas reading the play well alongside Matt Lewis. While for City the attacking quartet of Campbell, Degetto, Linger, Rossi with Ogusu at central forward seems to be starting to gel and capable of causing some problems on their day.

South Hobart’s coach Ken Morton was happy with the win and is hopeful of continuing to pressure Zebras for second place with 3 games remaining and having a good run in the end of season Cup conceding that the league title is probably out of reach now.

Launceston City’s coach Lino Sciulli was happy with the performance and left to lament the two missed opportunities before South turned the heat on for 20 minutes in the first half. He wasn’t too concerned with dropping a place into 6th position after Kingborough’s win yesterday, believing City just have to worry about their performances in the next few games and in particular the derby next week against Rangers.