BUNDABERG Toyota Spirit played like men on a mission in front of their boisterous home crowd at Martens Oval on Saturday night but were robbed of their second win in their past three matches in the Hyundai State League by an 87th minute equaliser by Whitsunday Miners’ Daniel Scotton.
But they could still hold their heads very high after a 2-2 draw despite finishing with just 10 men after Cory Haack was sent off late in the match after incurring a second yellow card.
Haack had drawn first blood for the Spirit in the 16th minute and continued to excel until his unfortunate dismissal, but Whitsunday drew level via Tyson Masters nine minutes before the break.
Bundaberg put their noses in front again with inspirational captain Brett Kitching heading the ball home in the 66th minute from an exquisite cross after it had been put into the area after a long-range raid down the left by an inspired Shane Youngberry, who was a constant threat all night.
In a pulsating end-to-end duel, the Spirit created chance after chance, with Youngberry and Sydney FC Youth star Ray Miller, who dazzled with his silky skills and lightning pace in just his second match for the club, the main instigators.
The Miners also turned on the attack, but with Central Coast Mariners Youth talent Adam Ormsby a Rock of Gibraltar in the heart of the Spirit defence and John Cullen also again playing far beyond his years at right back, every danger was defused until, with fatigue setting in, a gaping hole appeared in front of goal, Scotton ran through, found himself unmarked, and drove it past keeper Jason McEwan.
The Spirit picked themselves up off the canvas, quickly won the ball and went on the attack, and engineered three successive shots on goal, including a thunderbolt from Miller, but they were denied, and it was the Miners who had the last two chances to snatch a win, but both teams were beaten by the bell.
It was certainly a case of so near but yet so far, and while naturally disappointed to miss what would have been a thoroughly deserved win, Spirit coach Richard Mitchell and his assistant Tony Roebuck were both delighted with the performance and already looking forward to their clash with competition leaders Sunshine Coast this Saturday, again at home.
“It was a great effort – we created the chances but did not take enough of them and we also made a couple of silly mistakes. We should have had it but didn’t, but if we play the same way next week, there will be nothing better than to beat Sunny Coast on our pitch in front of our crowd – if we play that good and cut out those few silly mistakes, no-one is going to beat us,’’ Roebuck said.
“We played some really good, nice football. I’m a bit gutted we never got the result but I can’t fault the boys,’’ Mitchell added.
Kitching, who again marshaled his troops brilliantly, echoed the same sentiments.
“We played very well and created plenty of chances, but unfortunately conceded a few soft goals against and they scored at the end,’’ Kitching said.
“We had several opportunities to be two goals in front which would probably have sealed it, and we didn’t deserve not to come away with a result – the disappointing thing was that the two goals against us were not quality goals at all.’’
Both Roebuck and Kitching named Youngberry as their Player of the Match.
“It was Shane’s best game ever by far, Ray (Miller) and Loz (Laurie Stephenson) were also very good, and Adam (Ormsby) won pretty much everything in the air and he gives us great confidence at the back, and we have got a really strong back-line, but there was not one bad player, no passengers, and it was a real mates thing,’’ Kitching said.
Kitching is adamant they can go one better against
Sunshine
Coast this Saturday night even though the Fire will be still smarting after suffering their first loss of the season on the weekend, going down to North Queensland Razorbacks 2-1.
“We can beat them – the Miners were 2-all with them last week with two to go before they (Fire) sealed it with a late goal,’’ he said.
Kitching said their main goal for the rest of the year was to lift themselves off the bottom of the table and finish just outside the top four, and while they are still last of eight, six points behind seventh ranked Capricorn Cougars, they are eight adrift of fifth seed QAS, with eight rounds remaining.
“We wanted to win tonight but it was not to be, but we’ve got a lot of games at home and we can work our way up the table, and Sunshine Coast at home on our pitch will be a great way to start - Nick (Fitzgerald) will be back and he will add a lot to our strike-power,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Spirit Youth team coach Steve Bates rued a tardy start after they came back from a three-goal deficit to go down to South West 3-2.
“The first goal was soft and resulted from a bit of indecision by the keeper, the second was an own goal which was disappointing because we had three or four opportunities to deal with it at the back, and the third goal came from a bit of a mistake,’’ Bates said.
“Tom Kimber scored our first goal from a well constructed play and it was 3-1 at half-time, but we dominated play in the second half – we pushed everyone forward with nothing to lose, but we hit the cross-bar twice and their keeper made a couple of miraculous saves, “It took about 30 minutes to get our second goal through Lukey Leggett from a lovely set-play corner. After that there was a stoppage of play after a South West boy broke his ankle, then in the last 10 minutes, we just couldn’t find a third goal.’’
Despite the loss, Bates was happy with the effort shown.
“But at this level, you can’t give away soft goals, and it’s unfortunate that that’s what we did – but South West are no mugs – they have beaten Sunshine Coast and are the only team which has beaten Brisbane Strikers – with a bit of luck our way, we could have seen a different score-line and I think they will go away considering themselves fairly lucky given the amount of pressure we put on them in the second half,’’ he said.
Bates said Kimber and fellow Senior squad member Elliot Causer, in his return from injury, “both showed great maturity and helped the side immensely’’.
“Tom (Kimber) really played well tonight, as too did Mitchell Broom – he also played his heart out – and Lynton Seary was asked to step up to play centre-back in the absence of the suspended Michael Coleman, and he did a great job too,’’ he said.
