Gap Fitness Too Much For Newmarket
Newmarket 0 The Gap 6 (Murphy 23', 54', 55'; Discombe 61', 90'; O'Rourke 80') HT 0-1
Played at McCook Park.
A hat trick from Kieran Murphy helped seal a comfortable Westfield FFA Cup Preliminary RD2 victory for The Gap at a sultry McCook Park on Saturday evening. Dan Discombe's double and a lone Lewis O'Rourke strike completed the rout as Newmarket's plucky first half effort was soon extinguished after the interval.
Newmarket keeper Cameron Johnston with a first half penalty save.
The hosts were still in the game at the break, trailing to Murphy's opener midway through the half and courtesy of a penalty save from keeper Cameron Johnston after Ardesheer Aimassi had felled lively Gator's striker Josh Harding. The second term was a different scenario however, especially after Murphy struck twice in two minutes to secure his hat trick. He can perhaps count himself lucky when his third was initially saved by Johnston who could only watch on as the ball spun up off from his block and headed to goal; the Newmarket keeper scrambling back to try and keep the ball out but instead was only able punch it into the back of the net and perhaps the more likely to have been credited with what would have been an own goal. Gap were content to sit back after Discombe had all but put the tie to bed on the hour mark and allowed Newmarket a rare spell of pressure which nearly resulted in them coming close to scoring a consolation when Todd Cordon struck the upright from the edge of the box. Despite Gap's dominance of the game, it would have been a fair reward for Newmarket's efforts on the night had they netted. The icing on the cake for Gap came when O'Rourke struck the goal of the game with ten minutes remaining. Lashing the ball home from 20 yards out. There was still time for Discombe to copy O'Rourke's effort with a long range strike that evaded Johnstone on the stroke of full time. The gulf between the two sides was clearly evident with Gap looking to build on this result as they begin their Capital League 1 campaign next week. For Newmarket, some extra game time in the legs should see them being competitive as they look to make a push for promotion from Capital League 3.
Coaches Thoughts:
Newmarket coach Ashley Hempstead was philosophical, "They were too fit for us, end of story. You could see they've had a good pre-season where we've had an interrupted one". He added, "I can look at it that it was a good hit out against a side two levels above and we competed, but once they got the second goal, that was it from there."
Gap coach Trevor Rohdmann said, "They were a bit hard to break down early on. They defended pretty deep and made it hard for us. In the end though, we've had a good run out. Our ball movement was good and the game served well as a final pre-season run which sets us up nicely for next week." Team line-ups
Newmarket: Johnston (gk), Aarash Aimassi, Ardesheer Aimassi, Baird, Cole, Ellern, Inman, Jack, Ridsdale, Roddy, Yunis, Gordon. Subs: Wood (rk), Siebenhausen, Fulton. The Gap: Rohdmann A. (gk), Discombe, Gillespie, Harding, Holland, Molloy, Murphy, O'Rourke, Rohdmann S., Wheeler, Whyte, Subs: Drury (rk), Dobson, Hill, Kleinans.
Referee: John Vasiliadis
