Souths Snatch Three Points From Unlucky Thistle
Grange Thistle 0
Souths United 1 (Stojakovic 29’) HT 0-1 Played at Lanham Park
Souths United stayed in the top four on goal difference but did it the hard way when a first half strike from Mario Stojakovic was enough to secure three points from a desperately unlucky Grange Thistle, with a 1-0 win at Lanham Park this evening. It wasn’t the first chance of the game, it wasn’t the easiest, but it was the only one that went in and it came from sloppy play at the back and a confident low finish across the face of goal from the United number seven. Both teams started at a hundred miles an hour and whilst the away team were on top for large parts of the first half, the score could easily have been 3-3 at halftime. Twice Thistle hit the same post, firstly from a Tim Smits header and secondly from the boot of Ryan Adamson who had the keeper beaten but saw his effort rebound wide of the goal. Souths were getting forward often but were also butchering chances, in particular a free strike from the edge of the six yard box which Harun Omerovic side-footed straight at Zac Symons in goal. If Josh Anderson had repeated his excellent first half performance after the break he would have easily been the best player on the park and his side may have won convincingly but it wasn’t to be as the home team repeated last week’s performance by dominating the second half but coming away empty-handed. Thistle also had their own case of the wobblies when they missed a free header from four yards out with time winding down and the game poised to really open up. But when it did open up in the last ten minutes and Souths had multiple chances to score on the counter, they couldn’t find a decent pass even with three attackers on two defenders. As a showpiece for Brisbane football, it wasn’t the finest example, with pressing and pressuring from both teams creating a lot of possession contests in the middle of the park and an inability from both teams to get any decent diagonal switches of play going. Grange, for all their endeavours, have little to play for anymore but they obviously have set out to prove a point to themselves and won’t be any easy target for anyone, including the rematch in two weeks time at Wakerley Park which will hold no fears after tonight. All credit to them for absorbing some tough results and still trying to play free-flowing entertaining football. Souths have limped to some fortunate outcomes this season, ask Lions and Easts about that, and once again they will be happy to have gotten across the line.
Coaches Reactions:
Mick Hornby (Grange Thistle): “Seems to be a weekly tale at the moment but we’ve been on a really good run and we’ve had a bit of a stumble. I can’t fault my guys tonight. Their goal was sloppy and I don’t think we’ve had a decent goal scored against us. We hit the post twice, missed a free header. We’re doing everything but score. I think our guys are playing bloody good football and when we’re on top no-one can match us. We’re just not getting the luck.” Vedran Becirbegovic (Souths United): “The first half I thought we dominated but got caught out on transitions in our own half but the second we weren’t existent. We didn’t move the ball well and seemed to settle for the one goal win. We didn’t play to our halftime team talk and we’ll have to address that next week.”
FB Media Player Of The Match: Matt Hornby (Grange Thistle).
Forced to shuffle into the back four, Hornby was vital for Thistle in the first half when his side were under the pump, once again proving his aerial prowess and never turning over possession.
FB Media Stats:
Possession: 40% - 60% Shots on target: 5 - 6 Shots off target: 6 - 9 Corners: 3- 8 Free Kicks: 19 - 15
Penalties: 0 - 0 Offside: 0 - 4 Yellow Cards: 2 - 1 Red Cards: 0 - 0
Team line-ups
Grange Thistle: Symons (gk), Hasegawa, Hornby, Clayton, Booth, Roulston, Finnie, Adamson, Masuda, Smits, Mayberry.
Subs: Yoshisugi, Bahar, Cunneen, Bowden.
Souths United: Haling (gk), Johnson, McKain, Jeskey, Seo, Smith, Anderson, Maher, Stojakovic, Omerovic, Ezaki.
Subs: Mojica-Rodriguez, Varma, Radulovic, Catanzaro. REFEREE: Jason Crow
