July 13, 2007
Northern Premier League - 14th July
Launceston City 4 v Launceston 1
Somerset 2 v Riverside Olympic 0
Ulverstone 0 v Northern Rangers 3
Prospect Knights 1 v Burnie United 3
If anyone has reserves and unders scores….
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What a mouth watering round of matches before us in the Northern Premier League. Most of this weeks round of matches could be decided by a goal each with 3 games being fought out by teams in similar positions.
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First up Prospect Knights are hosting Burnie United. Prospect and Burnies form seems to have slipped of late, but more directly Burnies. Burnie haven’t won a game of football since defeating bottom of the ladder Launceston back on the 2nd of June, While Prospect have undone some good work by going down to the form side in Riverside last week. Both sides will view this weeks game as a steadier to help finish the season on a high. Both these side play a physical brand of football, and Burnie are particularly good at this when playing well. Burnies recent run of results isn’t as bad as it seems, and the boys in yellow and black will be a hand full for Knights. Last week Burnie went down to Somerset in the state wide cup 3-1, but the score doesn’t tell the story of the game. Burnie had Somerset under pressure in the early stages of the game, but couldn’t convert chances, while Somerset did and consequently won the game. This week against Knights, Burnie may just get away with letting a chance or two go begging, as Prospect will almost certainly suffer the same fait. Burnie have had some players out of recent weeks and this could have an effect on this game too, while prospect have had an extra week to recover from any niggles. All things being equal, Burnie will want this more than Prospect one feels and they will get the points in a close battle that will could well end up 2-1 or 2-3 type affair.
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Launceston City host Launceston in a match offering little but shooting practice for the City boys, and Launceston City haven’t exactly been struggling to score goals of late either, 7-1 against Taroona in the Cup, 2-2 against then league leaders at Devonport, 3-0 against Burnie and a crushing 6-1 against an improving Ulverstone. Launceston have so far given themselves no chance of reaching the target Dane Hudson set the side at the begging of the year of taking 9 points from the season, and at this stage are on target to score a grand total of 0. A worrying sign for Football in Launceston as it seems hard to see Launceston rebounding from this any season soon. City will romp home but Launceston will fight to the death as they do. If Launceston can avoid letting their opposition start early, they may just keep the score respectable.
League leaders Somerset will welcome Riverside Olympic in what is shaping up as the match of the round for so many reasons. Riverside’s coach Peter Sawdon has done a fantastic job to get this side to the position that they are currently in, few gave the boys any hope of better than a bottom 4 finish at the season start, and they now sit ready to pounce on the title from third place. If Riverside shock Somerset and win they will reduce the gap between themselves and first place to just 5 points, a big ask but Somerset have still some tough games to play with Launceston City, Northern Rangers, Prospect and Burnie all to come. If on the other hand Somerset win, the title race will settle to a three horse race with Somerset, Devonport and the outside chance of Launceston City. A Riverside win is not a given and Somerset are ridding high at present and seem hard to stop, convincing wins of late including the 1-0 defeat of arch rival Devonport see them deserving their 2 point lead at the top of the table, and while scores seem to stay low against Somerset, they score goals out of nothing and Riverside will struggle to repeat this in a close game. Somerset should get home in a close one.
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The final match of the round is the dead rubber between Ulverstone and Northern Rangers. Both sides have plenty to play for as clubs but can not achieve a top four position to help qualify for next year second round of the State Wide Cup. So it’s the pride cup at the Ulverstone show grounds. Matches between these two are always close and 8 of the 17 encounters have been decided by a goal. Saturday promises to be more of the same. Ulverstone have won just 2 games this year and Rangers just 3 in a year they were expected to finish in the top four and challenge for the title. In fact Ulverstone only win outside of playing Launceston was a 1-0 win away to Rangers, this was the start of a poor fun of form for Rangers and they would love nothing more than to trigger a good run against Ulverstone. But Rangers will have their work cut out for them with a number of senior players unavailable for the match. Sam Luck and Nick Schipper are both out for the season while Andrew Davies and Tim Schipper are both unavailable for this weeks round. Ulverstone haven’t had a lot of luck of late either so the level of confidence going in to the game will be similar. Rangers would deserve to go into the match as favorites but only just. The side are scoring the same amount of goals but Ulverstone are letting them in at the other end twice as often as Rangers are. Both sides need this win like nothing else and will fight for it all day, expect another close result here as Ulverstone and Rangers continue their rivalry.
Comment by Captain Australia — July 13, 2007 @ 11:16 am
Have you written us off already, C.A. ? I would be the first to agree that we have been less than impressive for the last few weeks, but aim to get it all back on track this week, with games against Devonport and Somerset to come Never say Never!
I have been waiting to see a photo of our ‘invader’ at Montello, is it on your website?
Comment by Hugo — July 13, 2007 @ 9:10 pm
Somerset 2 Riverside 0
Good display by Somerset but many near misses.
Comment by Zeibekkis — July 14, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
somerset reserves won 5-2 yesterday.there was no u18 game yesterday due to ilness in riverside team.senior game should have been 6-7 nil in probably one of somersets better displays this year.
Comment by sharky — July 15, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
I will have to send it wo ya via email as I think FFT will send us a letter regarding bringing the game into disrepute if we put a large settler on the official web site, there is a thread on our forums about it but you would have to register and find it so it would be easier if you gave me your email, actually just email me and i will reply with the goods
b.lichtendonk@brucestevenson.com.au
Comment by Captain Australia — July 16, 2007 @ 10:45 am
Sory to say I cant see any one but Somerset or dev tacking the title from here, as much as I would love you guys to do it, it seems highly unlikely, if we beat em both and you beat em both, then we are well on, but you have gotta take every set of 3 points left and we will have to do you some serious favours!
good luck though!
Comment by Captain Australia — July 16, 2007 @ 10:48 am
Reserves drew in Rangers vs Ulverstone 1-1
Unders Ulverstoen 4 Rangers 2
does nay one know the score in the Somerset Reserve game?
Comment by Captain Australia — July 16, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
Thanks C.A. I guess he was a little X-rated for FFT
Without mentioning names and not as a coach looking for excuses how nice it was and what a difference it made having a good ref against Somerset (we lost but it was our own doing) sent up from Hobart, and how dissappointing although we won to again face the terrible reffing we are becoming accustomed to up here.
Could we not see a few more Southern refs up North???
It really would help our game.
Comment by Hugo — July 16, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
How bloody hard is it to find out the reserve score from Somerset Riverside?
Comment by Captain Australia — July 17, 2007 @ 10:59 am
Don’t mean to be smart-arse C.A. but if you look a few postings above yours on this link you will find that Somerset won 5-2, so in reality not that bloody hard.
Sorry mate couldn’t resist taking the piss
Comment by Hugo — July 17, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
I will eat my hat!
Comment by Captain Australia — July 17, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
Yeh good call C.A. You will be pleased to know that I printed out the photo you sent me with a big caption ‘WHO DUN IT !!!’ if I ever find the culprit I will let you know.
Comment by Hugo — July 18, 2007 @ 5:53 pm