Centenary Storm Home Over Ten Man Toowong
Centenary Stormers 7 (Mehinagic 7’, 68’; Shoheel Khan 22’(P), 26’, 52’; Kleibo 63’; Le 80’) Toowong 1 (Greenslade-Horton 1’) HT: 3-1
Played at Atthows Park.
A match that started with promise for Toowong after taking a first minute lead ended in defeat as Centenary steamrolled them with Shoheel Khan netting a hat-trick. Their cause not helped when just six minutes into the second half, Robert Morrison was dismissed for his second caution leaving Toowong to struggle through the remainder of the match with ten men. Toowong took the lead in the first minute when an innocuous ball played into the Centenary area was only half cleared to the edge of the box and Luke Greenslade-Horton hit a left-foot volley into the corner of the net to give them the lead. Stormers responded six minutes later when a cross from the right caused a scramble in the area and Fedja Mehinagic was on hand to finish. The match then settled into a long ball game for the next fifteen minutes before Centenary started to pass the ball around in midfield. One such move ended with Khan making his way into the Toowong area and being brought down near the goal line with the former Lions FC striker netting his own spot kick. Four minutes later a long throw from the right reached Khan in the centre of the box and he slid the ball home for his second. Toowong had a couple of chances to reduce the leeway before the break but couldn’t take advantage of them. The best coming in the 36th minute when Nicholas Klaassen was through on goal but he sent his shot straight at Alec Schofield. The second half began slowly but things fired up when Morrison picked up his second yellow for a tackle on Khan. Khan making Toowong pay by curling the resultant free kick into the top corner out of the reach of Toowong keeper Tomoki Kimura, completing his hat trick. Joe Kleibo made it 5-1 when he latched onto a great through ball on the right and with the outside of his left foot, looped it over the advancing Kimura. Mehinagic got his second when a free kick from the left reached him in the box and he fired home. Klaassen toiled away as a lone figure up front for Toowong and was nearly rewarded when he tried an audacious shot from just inside the Centenary half that beat keeper Schofield but just cleared the crossbar. Centenary’s 7th came from a neat passing move that ended with Jason Le shooting on the turn to beat Kimura. Two big wins and Centenary look the team to beat in this division. Toowong have some work to do to show they can be competitive at this level.
Coaches Reactions:
Benn Schofield (Centenary Stormers) - “It was a good win and we are building towards something this year. It’s another stepping stone from last week to this week. The way we played and the football we played was quite pleasing.” Claude Capelli (Toowong) - “A disappointing result obviously. We’ve got a lot of young boys in the team who are learning about Cap 2 football. It’s a bit of a step up from last year. I can’t see too many teams in Cap 2 being better than that. They’ll be the benchmark this year.”
Team line-ups
Centenary Stormers: Schofield (A) (GK), Butler, Chester, Donaldson, Kavianpour, Khan (Shaqlain) (60’), Khan (Shoheel) (71’), Le, Martin (9’), Mehinagic, Schofield (J) Subs: Kleibo (9’), Doan (60’), Bright (71’)
Toowong: Kimura (GK), Capelli (63’), Cox, Greenslade-Horton, Grogan, Jackson, Klaassen, Lutton, Morrison, Needs (68’), Sauer (58’) Subs: Alderton (58’), Miotti (63’), Brown (68’)
Referee: Jake Beith
