Gators Signal Intent

The Gap 3 (Nose 38', 53' pen; O'Rourke 45+1') North Pine 2 (Kuboyama 32'; Brindell-South 87') HT 2-1 Played at: Walton Bridge Reserve

St Patrick's Day celebrations extended into the weekend for the Irish contingent at The Gap after Ryuhei Nose's double helped the Gators to an entertaining 3-2 victory over promotion favourites North Pine at Walton Bridge Reserve on Saturday night. The Gorillas started the brighter and deservedly took the lead when tricky forward Shuto Kuboyama, who early on had caused problems for Gap with Luke Sutherland forced into a couple of good saves to deny the Japanese striker, capitalised on a loose ball after a fortunate rebound off team mate Chris Culleton before firing inside Sutherland's near post shortly after the half hour. In truth Sutherland ought to have dealt with it as the ball slipped past his grasp. The goal only proved to energise the Gators who had barely troubled Pine keeper Daniel Hyde up until now but he was picking the ball out of the back of the net moments after his side had taken the lead. Nose's heavily deflected shot evading Hyde and drifting into the far corner. On the stroke of half time, the hosts struck the lead. Lewis O'Rourke with a skimming drive from 20 out that sneaked past Hyde before nestling into the bottom corner. A scrappy first half came to a close seconds later and resumed with much of the same gusto in the second term before Gap extended their lead shortly after the restart.

Ryuhei Nose tucks away a penalty to give his side a 3-1 lead early in the second half.

Jay Brindell-South was adjudged to have handled in the box and Nose guided his spot kick beyond the outstretched arms of Hyde to put his side in the box seat. Referee Martin Krenes had to use much of his experience to keep a lid on things as tempers began to fray with Pine now chasing the game but it took until the last quarter of an hour before the visitors started to pile on the pressure and it came when substitute Shay Kajewski entered the contest, replacing captain Craig Parker. Within seconds of his introduction, Kajewski forced Sutherland into his best save of the game, parrying the striker's fierce effort to safety after he'd broken through the Gap defence with just the keeper to beat. A couple of minutes later Sutherland was grateful to see Kajewski's deflected effort flash wide but with less than five minutes left on the clock, Kajewski linked up with Brindell-South to give Pine hope of grabbing a point. Brindell-South was credited with the goal but it looked like Kajewski had the final touch after the pair were left unmarked at the back post. Gap held out though to record a significant win and signalled their intent, that despite being the promoted side to Capital League 1 this season, they're real contenders for promotion. Things threatened to spiral out of control after the final whistle with comments exchanged and adrenalin racing before things were eventually settled down and protagonists ushered away as both sides could then reflect on preceedings. Kuboyama was the stand out for the Gorillas with his poise on the ball and ability to take on opponents, although at times a little too often. His side will need to focus on the positives from this game where they dominated the opening period until scoring.

Coaches Remarks:

Trevor Rohdmann - The Gap: "Very happy with the result. We worked really hard off the ball, but with the ball that was probably the worst performance from us so far, we turned over too much ball, especially first half. We were missing a few tonight and others stepped up. Really proud of the effort from them tonight." Wayne Heath - North Pine: "Disappointing that we didn't get anything from here tonight. We started well but got drawn into a scrap after we scored. We dropped our standards and they lifted. We didn't back to how we wanted to play and that's disappointing."

FB Media Player of the Match: Lewis O'Rourke - The Gap.

The live wire midfielder coverered acres of space throughout the night and was often in the thick of the action, including his crucial strike on the stroke of half time.

Match Stats:

Possession: 63% - 37% Shots on target: 7 - 7 Shots off target: 4 - 8 Corners: 2 - 10 Free Kicks: 17 - 15 Offside: 1 - 0 Yellow Cards: 3 - 1 Red Cards: 0 - 0

Team line-ups

The Gap: Sutherland (gk), Holland, McLaughlin (Kleinhans 85'), Molloy, Nose, O'Rourke, Rohdmann S., Saez (Ball 81'), Singleton, Wheeler, White. Subs: Rohdmann A. (rgk), Ball, Kleinhans, Page. North Pine: Hyde (gk), Brindell-South, Culleton, Kuboyama, Lincoln (Christiansen 64'), Masters, Neeve, Parker (Kajewski 75'), Richards (Scriggins R. 55'), Scriggins G., Spencer. Subs: Stipanovic (rgk), Christiansen, Heath, Kajewski, Scriggins R.. REFEREE: Martin Krenes

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