Football: Caversham thumps Spirit

New Caversham signing Dave Butler, sporting the club's new strip, in action against Spirit FC in...
New Caversham signing Dave Butler, sporting the club's new strip, in action against Spirit FC in Invercargill on Friday night. Photo by Rab Smith.
It is still neck and neck at the top of the Footballsouth Premier League, but Caversham increased its goal difference superiority to five over Dunedin Technical with a 6-1 win over the Spirit in Invercargill on Friday night.

The floodlit match was all the more spectacular as Caversham played in a new green away strip that initially looked to have brought bad luck to coach Steve Fleming's side.

The Spirit's tactic of flooding the midfield with players stymied Caversham and, when Scottish import Mark Caldow set up lone striker Morgan McCarrison to score after 27 minutes, an upset seemed possible.

It took a superb shot by Blair Duncan, which ricocheted in off the right upright in the 40th minute to beat Spirit keeper Oswaldo Rodriguez and equalise.

Possibly Caversham had made too many changes with the return of Patrick Fleming, Seamus Ryder and team-mates from the St Francis College in Pennsylvania, Dave Butler and Taylor Powers, who all had a run.

In the second spell, a more settled and much sharper Caversham bounced back, with goals by Harley Rodeka (2), Ant Hancock (2) and an own goal.

Technical had many chances to rack up its goal tally at the Caledonian Ground where a rampant display produced a 3-0 scoreline.

Goals to Matt Joy, George Milne and, inevitably, Aaron Burgess exposed a performance that Roslyn will prefer to forget.

But coach James Vaughan's side tightened up in the second half, and earned better possession to exert pressure on Tech.

Technical coach Mike Fridge felt that his side put away barely half its goal-scoring chances, and clearly had the FPL goal difference statistics in mind.

Yet, in a final flurry by the ragged Roslyn side, there were several corners and free kicks that might have dented Technical's statistics even further.

At the Gardens, Grants Braes maintained momentum to draw 1-1 with Northern, after captain Marcus Mineba carved past three Northern defenders to score.

Northern hit back with steady pressure in the second half.

Sean Brand equalised and honours were shared at the final whistle.

Mosgiel was also held to a 2-2 draw by University, despite goals by Phil Kelly and new signing Luke Burgess, in a fierce contest at Memorial Park.

Dan Grice and Dom Higgins scored the goals for Varsity, although the students are now above only Spirit and Green Island.

Luckless Green Island lost 3-1 to Queenstown, despite an improved performance and a goal by Dan Rutter.

But Queenstown's swarming attack netted three times, through Marvin Masso, Ross Mackenzie and Carlos Herrmann.

 

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