Rovers With One Hand On Title After Victory At Grange
Grange Thistle 3 (Cunneen 33’, Finnie 56’, Masuda 61’) Rochedale Rovers 6 (Aoci 7’, 22’, 72’, Nagata 10’, Cameron 12’, Shizuno 82’) HT 1-4 Played at Lanham Park
Rochedale Rovers went out to the biggest lead of the season, five points ahead of second placed Eastern Suburbs, when they conjured an unconvincing 6-3 win over Grange Thistle at Lanham Park on Saturday evening. Kado Aoci opened the scoring with a technically brilliant turn and shot off the chest in the seventh minute and it all went pear-shaped for the home side as Uryu Nagata and Lewis Cameron both scored before Aoci grabbed his second, making it 4-0 with only twenty-two minutes on the clock. The madness continued when Ross Cunneen scored the goal of the game with an acrobatic volley from the left side of the penalty area which smacked into the roof of the net, despite clipping the gloves of Mario Aparicio on the way through. After the break Rovers completely lost their composure as goals from Ryan Finnie, his first for Thistle since joining last month, and Joey Masuda, ensured Thistle were looking the likely victors, overwhelming their highly-rated opponents all around the park. The final outcome was seemingly scripted to reflect the air of ineptitude present on the night as some unfortunate defending from the home side allowed Aoci to easily complete his hat trick and Seiji Shizuno to add to an all-important goal difference. If Rochedale win the title, which seems increasingly likely, they might well look back and consider this weekend as significantly important due to how other results fell exactly the way they needed. Grange will take at least something from this car-crash because they got back into it and would have equalised if not for a point blank save from Aparicio. Best for Grange were Ryan Finnie, who showed some lone resistance in the first half, and Ryan Adamson who was involved in the lead up for all of three of their goals. Rochedale had plenty of players off their game and they were guilty of over-playing with a big lead but Todd Norris won the ball and consistently completed passes when all around him were spraying wide of their intended receiver. It wasn’t a game for the purists but there were plenty of goals which is always entertaining, with another good-sized crowd at Lanham Park showing plenty of appreciation when their side looked to be heading to a repeat of their Westfield FFA Cup upset recently over Rovers. Next weekend, Grange travel out to Wakerley Park for the first time since losing 1-0 last season in a result which ultimately cost them the title despite both teams still being promoted. Rochedale return to Underwood Park for the M1 derby against a Logan FC side which was soundly beaten at home by Albany Creek and which shouldn’t hold any fears for the now title-favourites - but probably will in the craziest Flight Centre Premier League in decades.
Coaches Reactions:
Mick Hornby (Grange Thistle): “We played good football for most of the game really but didn’t finish an early chance and unfortunately they had three scrappy goals in the first fifteen minutes which really punished us. But what a comeback after the halftime break at 4-1 down, when we should have equalised. Unfortunately our defender falls over inside our box and that took the game away from us. We never gave up for the ninety minutes and are having no luck in front of goal whilst giving away cheap ones.” Scott MacNicol (Rochedale Rovers): “Scrappy. Up 4-0, they got a good goal then we hit the bar. We knew at halftime they were going to come at us. We conceded sloppy goals and turned over possession then Mario saved us at 4-3. Eventually we got another couple of goals and got away with the win.”
FB Media Stats:
Possession: 52% - 48% Shots on target: 4 - 9 Shots off target: 3 - 10 Corners: 5 - 8 Free Kicks: 7 - 8
Penalties: 0 - 0 Offside: 1 - 0 Yellow Cards: 2 - 0 Red Cards: 0 - 0
Team line-ups
Grange: Symons, Adamson, Booth, Clayton, Cunneen, Finnie, Masuda, Mooney, Roulston, Smits, Symons, Yoshisugi.
Subs: Hasegawa, Hornby, Xinis, Taylor.
Rochedale: Aparicio, Norris, Tobin, Nagata, Ross, Ortega, Shizuno, Stenhouse, Fellows, Aoci, Cameron.
Subs: Faichnie, Morgan, Park, Matsuda, McDonald. REFEREE: Anton Shchetinin
