Search

Committed Students Push Devils All The Way

Phil Davis
May 10, 2017
3 min read

UQFC 0 Redlands United 2 (Davis 7, 57) HT 0-1 Played at Oval 3, St Lucia

UQFC gave everything they had but fell short when they were beaten 2-0 by Redlands United in their Round 5 Westfield FFA Cup game at St Lucia on Wednesday night. The Red Devils came out of the blocks on fire and were rewarded in the seventh minute when a passing interchange with Sam Roper set Alistair Davis on his way and he drilled the ball home inside the near post. It took another fifty minutes for the second goal to arrive when Davis got his head onto a cross and pushed the ball home with the Students goalkeeper inexplicably leaving the centre of his goal unguarded. On paper it looked an uneven match-up and with fifteen minutes gone it seemed there could be a massacre on the cards but once the home side settled into their stride and started to play the ball around, a genuine contest unfolded. Matt Chandler has his side playing a nice style of football but they certainly weren't prepared for what was thrown at them as UQFC played two deep midfielders and ran the ball at every opportunity, consistently dribbling through the middle of the park and drawing plenty of free kicks around the area. Redlands haven't been great this season but were obviously a class above when playing the ball yet couldn't manage to come to grips with an aggressive style of play which saw all the major statistics split fairly evenly between the the two teams. Both sides had plenty of shots on target but the main difference was a lack of pace up front for the Capital League 1 club, ensuring they were forced to play wide without penetration into the penalty area. What could have been a banana skin produced some gripping football but when the second goal went in, the Playstation4 NPL Queensland side sat behind the ball and eventually took control of the contest. UQFC have lost multiple league games against credible opposition by only a single goal and it wasn't hard to see why with some tremendous defending but a lack of a genuine cutting edge up front. They'll be disappointed not to have gotten more out of this game considering how much effort they put in and both goals possibly should never have found the net courtesy of some unusual positioning from their man between the sticks. The draw for Round Six will be held on Friday at 11am and more than anything Redlands will just be relieved to have their name in the barrel.

Coaches Reactions:

Duncan Tranent (UQFC) - "Two tiers different but they had four attacks and scored twice. We had a bunch of good ones in the first half and a couple in the second. I told the team before kick off that this was a bonus game against a team that actually play good football. I thought we played good football as well. It was a high standard game." Matt Chandler (Redlands) - "It's always hard to play away from home in our first cup game. Our performance wasn't fantastic but we won and at the moment it's all about winning. They gave us a good game and had their chances but I thought we controlled the game much better in the second half. We've seen teams lose these kind of games so happy to get through to the next round as we continue to improve."

FBMedia Player Of The Match: Mikey Dalton (Redlands)

Dalton was instrumental in many of his sides dangerous attacking forays and slipped comfortably into the middle of the park when Sam Roper was substituted.

Match Stats:

Possession: 1st Half 49% - 51% / 2nd Half 51% - 49% Overall Possession: 50% - 50% Shots on target: 9 - 5 Shots off target: 7 - 7 Penalties 0 - 0 Free kicks: 17 - 19 Offside: 1 - 2 Corners: 1 - 3 Yellow Cards: 2 - 1 Red Cards: 0 - 0