A second half header from Chris Valic proved the difference as South Coast United ran out 2-1 winners over Cringila Lions on Sunday at Crehan Park.

South Coast threatened from set pieces all game and the breakthrough was off the back of some hard work, according to head coach Alan Paine.

“We’ve got a couple of real big centre-halves so we’re always dangerous on set pieces,” said Paine, speaking after the game.

“We work on that sort of thing in training and we could’ve had two or three more in the second half there.”

The second half might have belonged to South Coast but the first was most definitely Cringila’s.

The Lions controlled much of the ball early on and it showed as they took an early lead in the through Chris Cevenini.

Cevenini looked lively early on and in the 11^th minute he found a gap in some sloppy defending and latched onto a perfectly weighted pass from Stefan Dimoski for a 1-0 lead.

South Coast slowly worked their way into the match before a bit of luck lead to their equaliser just four minutes before the half time break.

A miss-hit shot from Lee Gilroy found its way to an unmarked Andrew Paine inside the area who managed to control the ball just enough to move it into the net.

“We started poorly, we knew we had to show some enthusiasm but we couldn’t get out of the blocks at all,” said Paine.

“With 15 minutes to go in the first half we started to get going and in the second half I thought we dominated.”

South Coast seemed to shake off any nerves from the first half to assert their control over the match after half time.

Libyan midfielder Kolan Al Mehde dictated much of South Coast’s attack with some surging runs from deep in his own half.

It was on one of these runs in the 66^th minute that he won a free-kick outside the Cringila area that lead to the winning goal.

Tommy Skara had previously floated several dangerous balls into the Lions’ box to no avail but this time his free-kick found a charging Chris Valic who headed home for a 2-1 lead.

Cringila managed to work some late chances on Jason Bleakley’s goal but were unable to find a goal and earn a draw.

The win sees South Coast United move into 4^th place on the ladder while Cringila slumped to their third straight loss.

 

Cringila Lions 1 (C. Cevenini) South Coast United 2 (A. Paine, C. Valic)

Bookings: G. Despotovski, N. Nastoski.                     D. Terzic.

Referee: Bobby Mazevski

 

Julian Keith
FSC Reporter