Briggs Pulls The Strings At Wakerley Park

Souths United 1 (Stojakovic 38') Peninsula Power 6 (Briggs 4', 36', 58', Mendy 3', Bonotto 20', Feuerriegel 54') HT: 1-4 Played at Wakerley Park

Dean Briggs produced one of the great individual performances when he scored a hat trick and collected two assists in a 6-1 thrashing of Souths United on the artificial surface at Wakerley Park on Saturday evening and rounding off a week to forget for Souths. Two goals in the first four minutes to Charles Mendy and Briggs and the game was effectively over. By the 36th minute, Andre Bonotto had headed home a trademark Richie Hurlin cross and Briggs had doubled his tally with a piledriver, ensuring any doubt over the outcome was history despite Mario Stojakevic dragging a goal back for Souths before halftime. After the break, Shaun Feuerriegel lashed home from the edge of the area and Briggs was the benefactor of some penalty box pinball as Peninsula rounded off their biggest win of the season in the league. Thomas Charles Mendy can be a confounding figure at times, his time at Peninsula has been patchy, but when he turns on the style he is almost unplayable which is what happened in the first half an hour as he left countless defenders in his wake and could easily have ended up with a hat trick of his own. The poor condition of Field 1 resulted in this game being switched to the Astroturf which was an unfortunate decision by the home side as the visitors took to the perfectly flat surface like ducks to water, at times toying with their opposition. On twenty minutes, at 3-0 down, Vedran Becirbegovic made the extraordinary decision to replace Drew Jeskey with Sasa Radulovic despite the former US import not being injured and being consistently one of the team's best all season. Souths were being caught square at the back and the re-shuffle did little to stem the tide as even Jon McKain had little control over events unfolding around him. Power's starting line-up will be slightly changed for the Westfield FFA Cup game on Tuesday, with both Dan Smith and Josh Sansucie cup-tied, but tonight's team is as close as they can get to having their best eleven available and it showed. Jared Austin, the all-action midfielder, was forced into playing at right back and couldn't have looked cooler if he was the Fonz riding James Dean motorbike to Woodstock in the snow, having ages of time on the ball and winning everything which came his way. It's been an impressive season back in the top flight for Souths, at times at least, but that looks to be the end of their run with Mitchelton beating Albany Creek in the earlier game and taking a three point buffer over United with a game in hand against Capalaba. Peninsula's season is only just really starting to take off as they could, thereotically, win every competition available to them although winning the Westfield FFA Cup would be a stellar achievement. With Lions beating Easts and Rochedale Rovers beating Capalaba, the stage is set for a grandstand finish as Peninsula cling desperately to the hope that Rovers will drop points in one of their two remaining games against Albany Creek and Mitchelton. Tonight was a night for the red, white and blue as the biggest fortnight the club has ever witnessed kicked off in style.

Coach Remarks:

Vedran Becirbegovic (Souths United): "We were beaten by a hungrier team tonight. They deserved this win, we didn't turn up and we just have to write this one off. All we can do is play the last two games and hope things fall our way." Ben Ryan (Peninsula Power): "We came out of the traps from the off really. Started really well and took it on. They are obviously a good side and we had to come here and do a good job which is what we've done. We defended well, we attacked well... three points was what we came here for but we didn't expect to run away with it the way we did."

FB Media Player Of The Match: Dean Briggs (Peninsula Power).

It wasn't so much that Briggs was the best performer, it was more a case of being the lead actor with a superb supporting cast. Must have a good chance of winning the Gold Medal.

FB Media Match Stats:

Overall Possession: 53% - 47% Shots on target: 4 - 10 Shots off target: 7 - 7 Shots blocked: 1 - 0 Corners: 5 - 4 Free kicks: 10 - 7 Penalties: 0 - 0 Offsides: 0 - 0 Yellow cards: 1 - 1 Red cards: 0 - 0