Royals’ season ‘bit frustrating’

Dunedin City Royals forward En Watanabe (left) challenges Green Island’s Cameron Brewitt during their Southern League game at Sunnyvale earlier this season. Photo: Gerard O'Brien

It was the cliched season of two halves for the Dunedin City Royals.

The Royals were tracking well in the first half of the Southern League, beating second-placed Cashmere Technical, sitting third and knocking on the door of the top two qualifying spots.

Then came the second round.

Injuries to key players, and the absence of others, led to the Royals losing their way a tad and finishing fourth.

"A bit frustrating," coach Richard Murray said when asked to sum up the season that finished at the weekend.

"It’s a little bit of what could have been."

Getting knocked out of the Chatham Cup in the opening round was another speed bump, as the Southern League breaks during cup weekends.

"We had four weekends with no games.

"That sort of killed the momentum as well."

The Royals finished the season on eight wins, five draws and five losses.

There were still some fine performances, and the Royals finished the season on a high with a 5-0 win over Coastal Spirit, who finished third.

"Even though the second round didn’t go as planned, or as hoped, there was still some performances in there," Murray said.

"We just lacked being clinical and ruthless at different times.

"There was some really good individual performances and some good team performances in there. We were able to [get] some players coming through as well."

Alex Boomer came on in "leaps and bounds" and Hayden Aish, Sean Cooper and Ben Stanley were standouts.

"Plenty of others stepped up as well when needed."

Green Island finished the season with five wins, one draw — a 1-1 battle against friendly foes Dunedin City Royals — and 12 losses.

They became the first side to score three goals against Christchurch United, the competition’s No1 team, but unfortunately conceded 15 in the same game.

Green Island also had some narrow losses that could have gone either way.

They pushed Coastal Spirit to 3-2, and were pipped 2-1 by both Nomads United and Ferrymead Bays.

Stefan Milidrag starred in Green Island’s memorable 5-4 win over Nelson Suburbs, scoring a hat-trick to help his side on their way.

He scored nine goals in the season to be the club’s leading scorer.

Christchurch United won the Southern League and will be joined in the National League by second-placed Cashmere Technical.

FC Twenty11, who won just two games out of 18, finished last and will be relagated from the Southern League.

Nelson and Canterbury University have a two-legged playoff over the next two weeks, and the winner of that will have a home-and-away playoff against a Southern Premiership team to determine the final spot in the Southern League.