Carina Win Extra Time Thriller At Fursden Road
AC Carina 3 (Dempsey 24’, Abbey 58’, Prendergast 116’) Westside Grovely 2 (Peach 52’, Lu 54’)
AET
FT: 2-2
HT: 1-0 Played at Brisbane Abruzzo Club
AC Carina are one game away from their first ever Grand Final after a thrilling 3-2 extra time victory over Westside in the Capital League 3 knockout semi-final, in front of a packed house at The Brisbane Abruzzo Club on Saturday night. Shane Dempsey scored the opener for Carina in the 24th minute with a long range speculator from wide on the left which snuck into the goal off the inside of the far post. Westside scraped into halftime down by the single goal but returned to the pitch breathing fire and it was game-on in the 52nd minute when Ross Peach found space, cut inside his defender and confidently equalised for the visitors. Two minutes later, Jesse Lu proved why you can’t teach pace when he broke into the same left channel and put his side into the lead. With less than half hour on the clock, Daniel Abbey ensured the game would go into extra time when he finally got in behind the back four and levelled things up with a nonchalant finish in front of the rowdy clubhouse end. And then the real story of a gripping encounter emerged when Niall Prendergast came off the bench and turned a great first touch into a low driven winner in the 116th minute. Any assessment of tonight’s technical performances has to be prefaced with a caveat… the pitch was terrible and, whilst being safe to play on, it was impossible to play well on. In spite of that, both teams did their best to provide some high tempo football ensuring plenty of heavy challenges with the unique layout at Fursden Road and close proximity of supporters adding a passionate finals spirit to the contest. Westside weren’t the best team on the night, but for the first fifteen minutes after half time they played the best football of the game and will go into their off-season feeling as if luck let them down. AC Carina can now get over feeling relieved and start planning for an away Preliminary Final against St George Willawong, who continued their notoriously awful finals season campaign history when they were thrashed 5-1 by Caboolture earlier in the evening. A marked defensive improvement has taken the Dolphins from also-rans to possible Grand Finalists but they had some nervy moments and hopefully can iron out those issues on a pitch where passing accuracy is a possibility.
Coach Remarks: Liam Saif (AC Carina): "Westside are a really tough side with two good players up top who caused us a lot of problems. I thought overall we were the better side. They’ve had probably four chances and scored two. We’ve had at least eight and scored three which is the story of our season. We wanted it more than them, we worked so hard and we deserved it." Liam O’Sullivan (Westside): "Disappointed. I thought the game was pretty scrappy. Obviously in the end this was going to happen. Bouncy pitch. Was bound to happen."
FB Media Player Of The Match: Niall Prendergast (AC Carina).
It’s rare, but sometimes a moment defines an outcome. That moment came with a sublime first touch and finish from Prendergast whilst all around were firing.
Team line-ups
AC Carina: Needs, Burgess, Thompson, Molinas, Mortensen, Blytheway, Pollicina, O’Connor, Knowles, Kealey, Abbey Subs: Pelaez, Perisic, Prendergast, Sloane.
Westside: Sturley, Hunter, Geggie, Grady, Klemmey, Lu, S.Cannon, Hutchison, Cloete, Peach, Khoury. Subs: M.Cannon. Menadue Referee: Steven Smailes
