Southern Stallions vs Northern Power
at the Edfield Stadium
The 5th and 6th Playoff saw the 2 sides who had shown glimpses of good form during the Cup but failed to put it all together..
Both sides were coming off games against the Finalists... The Stallions a draw against the Fury and the Power a thrashing against the Swell..
The game started evenly, but in the 8th minute it was the Power who had the lead.. A Free kick from Anrew Cloete found Thamba Mamesh who controlled it and hit the shot, beating Stallions Keeper Richard Hingston..
3 Minutes later Cloete was again the instigator when he beat Daniel Towns and got the ball to Orjan Hjelde who slotted home the Power's second...
After 21 minutes though the Stallions were back in it.. Su, sent Verghese through on goal, and he slotted it under Blake Donald to get it back within 1..
Thats the way it remained at half-time..
After the break, things started slowly until the 55th minute when Power captain Tharmi Loganathan was Red carded for headbutting Ash Chaulk and suddenly things for the Stallions were looking up. However that didnt last for long..
Two minutes later Hingston cut down David Comley in the area and a penalty was awarded.. Mamesh made no mistake of it and suddenly it was the 10 men Power up 3-1...
Things got worse for the Stallions after 60 minutes when Rune Nielsen was shown a second yellow for dragging down Comley, and we were back at 10 men each..
Both sides had opportunites to score but neither could take them, and when Crampton seen red on 75 minutes the Stallions chances were gone.. From there the game petered out until the final whistle...
So the Stallions finish 6th and the Power 5th, but both sides will know they have some work to do to match the top teams..
FINAL SCORE
Code:
Southern Stallions 1 - 3 Northern Power
Reub_Verghese (21) Thamba_Mamesh (8,57 pen)
Rune_Nielsen (sent off 60) Orjan_Hjelde (11)
Alex_Crampton (sent off 75) T_Loganathan (sent off 55)
Andrew_Cloete (Northern Power) (man of the match)
HT: 1-2