Two goals in two minutes saw South Coast United bump one spot up the table in Sunday’s game. Coming off their first win of the season, you’d think that the last team they’d want to face is the league leaders, but Sunday saw South Coast fight hard for a win against Kemblawarra Fury.

 

Greg Valic seems to have succeeded in guiding his strikers to goal since taking over the team, happy with the result on Sunday. “I thought the performance was really good, I thought we deserved the win. We battled and it was hard fought, I thought we deserved it.”

 

South Coast set the pace early on in the match, with an attempt at goals only four minutes in. In the first ten minutes, South Coast strung together a series of attacking runs, with Fury keeper David Poeira busy defending the goals.

 

Things began to heat up in the 20^th minute, with Fury on the defence squandering the 1-on-1’s, receiving two cautions in two minutes.

 

A minute later in the 22^nd minute, South Coast received a free kick from the front of the goal. United’s Oliver Carrasco took the shot, kicking a low shot to the left of the keeper straight into the goal.

 

The scoreboard read 1-0 to South Coast.

 

Only one minute later, after a through ball to United striker Liam Unicomb, he took the ball down the middle of the field, passing Fury defenders as he raced towards the goals. It was a 1-on-1 with the keeper, where Unicomb placed the ball perfectly to the right of the keeper.

 

Fury began to look concerned as United’s defence held strong against the top of the table team. The home crowd was enlightened and both teams played a consistent first half, with four more cautions being issued to various players of both teams. Fury began to limit the attack with good interaction and controlled passing, though the defence from United was solid.

 

The first half finished with South Coast in the lead 2-0.

 

Both teams looked to be attempting to gain consistency in attack, though it was South Coast who was hammering the fury goal, with the South Coast midfielders playing dominant roles in both defence and attack. There were some solid opportunities with no payoff.

 

In the 65^th minute, Fury coach Luke McGuire made a substitution, bringing Tyson Rhodes off the field and putting Sang Ho Lee on the field.

 

Just two minutes later a corner was given to Fury who struck the ball towards the goal where Fury’s Brenton Rhodes headed the ball into the path of Sang Ho Lee. Lee volleyed the ball straight past United keeper Jason Bleakley. The substitution scored a goal within two minutes of being on the field.

 

This brought the scoreboard to 2-1.

 

This goal seemed to have make South Coast hungrier for a win, establishing consecutive attacking plays, Fury’s Poeira saving multiple goals and Fury’s defence shining.

 

In a turn of events in the 84^th minute, a bad mistake from a throw in by Fury took the ball back to the keeper. Poeira and a defender misjudged the goals clearance, which allowed Oliver Carrasco to take a strike straight past the left of the keeper, straight into the goal.

 

With such a thrilling game from teams from both the top and bottom of the table, South Coast were extremely happy with the win, building confidence for future games. “Confidence is building, training is great and we’re looking forward to future games. Confidence now is high.”

 

Although it was the first loss after seven weeks, Fury coach Luke McGuire admits that South Coast was fighting for a win, “They wanted it more than us today, we didn’t prepare properly for them today and it came back to bite us.”

 

South Coast United – 3 (Carrasco, 22’ 84’, Unicomb 23’)

Kemblawarra Fury – 1 (Ho Lee 67’)

Sunday 22 May 2016

Ian McLellan Park

Referee: Nathan Wotton

South Coast United: Jason Bleakley, Lee Gilroy, Aden Wade (Kolan Hemda), Greg Valic, Robert Brown, Dinko Terzic (Ricky Bertakis), Oliver Carrasco, Cameron Solevski (Jun Lee), Liam Unicomb, Denis Stojic, Yuki Kiyohara, (subs not used: Anton Batur, Chris Lazarevski)

 

Kemblawarra Fury: David Poeira, Lachlan O’Connor, Tyson Rhodes (Sang Ho Lee 65’), Shane Murray, Brenton Rhodes, David Hartas, Fabian Iacovelli (Shane Lyons), Alvin Ceccoli, Matthew McNab, Robbie Shields, Sam Munro, (subs not used: Ryan Suttle, David Zufic)

 

Report by Lauren Ferri (@lauren_ferri)

Photo: Pedro Garcia (Archive)