Rampaging Tigers maul Leichhardt
SEVEN goals in 30 minutes against the FNQ Premier League’s second-best team has proved just how lethal Edge Hill United is this year.
The Tigers produced some of the best football seen in Far North Queensland during a first half in which they won every single battle against a Leichhardt team who simply couldn’t match the home side.
“It’s probably our best performance of the year,” playercoach Crios O’Hare said.
“We knew, going in, that it would be a battle on this pitch, and we knew we had to start better than they did.
“The goals we scored are good goals from our point of view, because that’s what we’re good at, set pieces and going quickly on the break.”
Edge Hill Utd dominated the ball, just about every pass from a yellow and black-clad man found another in similar colours — and more often than not with plenty of space.
Leichhardt was reduced to just 10 men after 18 minutes when Cameron Nucifora was shown a red card.
Nucifora was engaged in a running battle with Ryan Murray, and while there were plenty of verbal barbs and heated competition, it threatened to boil over when they collided at the speed in the 15th minute of the game.
The Leichhardt midfielder was shown a yellow card, but when the Tigers scored through Jesse Casson a minute later to make it 2-0 after Declan O’Shea’s opener, Murray made sure Nucifora knew the score.
Then, when Murray scored, the Englishman celebrated with teammates then made a beeline for Nucifora and slid in front of him. Nucifora shoved Murray — sparking a minor scuffle in which Leichhardt captain Josh Mulla wound up on the turf — and was shown a red card.
If the result was in doubt before then, Ben McDonnell’s goal in the 23rd minute virtually assured Edge Hill Utd of victory, a place in the October 31 grand final and a shot at achieving a perfect season.
Up 7-0 at the main break, O’Hare said his side’s unwillingness to relax was a reflection of the success they want to achieve in 2020.
“As a contest it was probably over, but we knew they wouldn’t give up and it was important we came out and we still played,” O’Hare said.
“When we have a squad like ours, it’s important that everyone still plays to a good standard because everyone wants to play in a grand final.”
They were so dominant, so ruthless, that Kevin Ward was more in danger of catching a cold than he was the ball.
O’Hare, O’Shea, McDonnell and Murray all earned early marks to allow valuable game time for Thane Beal, who is recovering from injury, and young trio Oliver Berry, Josh McMillan and Josh Tiedeman, who scored the final goal with two minutes to play.
“It was a super performance from us,” O’Hare said.
“From the get-go, we were quality all over the ground.
“Once we got our first one, we never looked back, and we were probably at our best.
“We were really good going forward, really dangerous, we defended well, and the result speaks for itself, we were good all over the park.”
Edge Hill Utd will face the winner of this Saturday’s preliminary final between Leichhardt and the winner of last night’s clash between Mareeba Utd and Innisfail Utd.