Disjointed Power Defeat Depleted Tigers

Peninsula Power 3 (Feuerriegel 49’, Mendy 66’, 76’) Eastern Suburbs 1 (Flavin 82’ pen)

HT 0-0

Played at AJ Kelly Field

Peninsula Power made hard work of their vital Round 22 match against a depleted Eastern Suburbs but eventually emerged as 3-1 winners on a surprisingly slippery surface at AJ Kelly Field on Saturday afternoon. A 0-0 halftime scoreline quickly turned to a lead for Power in the 49th minute when Shaun Feuerriegel collected a loose ball and whipped home a neat finish past Jack Richards in goal. Charles Mendy, playing at centre forward, probed the Tigers defence all game and it was not too much of a surprise when he scored two goals in ten minutes, both accurate drives from the edge of the penalty area. In the 82nd minute, Easts were awarded a penalty for a trip and Killian Flavin confidently despatched the spot kick, providing some respectability to the scoreline and giving his team a sniff of a result which would have been even tighter had Toru Amano’s brilliant long range shot not flashed narrowly wide of the right hand upright. A big scoreline was predicted with the away side only having five regular first-teamers available but the replacements acquitted themselves well and for a period during the first half could easily have taken the lead if luck was on their side. But once the deadlock was broken there was only going to be one winner. Statistically the home side dominated possession but all the other statistics were well-balanced which is a fair representation of the contest. With Mitchelton winning at Teralba Park, Peninsula will qualify for the finals at the expense of either Holland Park or Rochedale if they can beat Ipswich Knights at Eric Evans Oval. They’ll have to better than today to make that happen. At times they were their own worst enemy, repeatedly turning over possession through poor decision making and inaccurate passing. Patches of sparkling football were sprinkled through out the game but if they want to go another run to the grand final they need to do it more consistently over ninety minutes. Easts officially bow out for the season and even though they can cite unfortunate timing for their player availability in this game, in the cold hard light of day they’ll look back and admit they just weren’t good enough and there were other teams that were better. Of course, if history repeats itself based the last couple of years Power will win their last four games and add more silverware to the cabinet. FB Media Player Of The Match:ST Toru Amano - Eastern Suburbs

As much as Power were clear winners in this game, best on the park was Amano who was involved in everything good the Tigers did. With a little more luck he could have dragged his team to a result. Team line-ups Power: Burrows (gk), Spiandorello, Salin, Bonotto, Austin, Mendy, Ahern, Buhmann, Feuerriegel, McEvoy, Strickland. Subs: Holden, Sauer, Fairgrieve, Cormack, Reesby (rgk).

Easts: Richards (gk), Burgess, Grogan, McIntyre, Psaros, Kim, Coyne, Amano, Flavin, Sewell, Rahman. Subs: Meacham, Tobin, Shin, Lorenti. FB Media Match Stats.

Possession: 1st Half 53% - 47% / 2nd Half 60% - 40% Overall Possession: 57% - 43% Shots on target: 9 - 5 Shots off target: 4 - 4 Penalties 0 - 1 Free kicks: 14 - 14 Offside: 4 - 2 Corners: 4 - 3 Yellow Cards: 0 - 0 Red Cards: 0 - 0