Green Island sounds warning in thrilling win
GREEN Island showed its credentials in a thrilling 53 victory over Caversham in the Southern Premier League on Saturday.
Green Island defender Aaron Allan took the ball out of defence and, just over halfway, looked up and, Beckhamesque, spotted Sean Van Dyk off his line.
He floated in a longrange effort with five minutes gone.
Caversham slowly found form through the creativity of Ben Wade who equalised after 26 minutes, when he shaped to cross but found the net from an acute angle.
With halftime approaching, Green Island was awarded a penalty and Tom Milton made no mistake.
Green Island controversially had a goal disallowed early in the second half following a long discussion with the officials.
Caversham took advantage and levelled through a Connor Neil penalty with 25 minutes left.
Caleb Williams, who was industrious in the midfield, restored Green Island’s lead in the 70th minute and a Matt Mitchell own goal in the 78th minute made it 42.
Wade curled in a sublime free kick past Christian Firth to narrow the gap to a single goal in the 90th minute.
Green Island attacking midfielder Eddie Wilkinson capped a wonderful individual performance with a spectacular lofted goal deep into stoppage time.
Seeing Sean van Dyk had come out of his goalbox as Caversham chased a late equaliser, he looked up after gaining possession and calmly curled the ball into the net from distance.
Mosgiel had the statisticians dusting off almanacks in their 200 win over Northern.
Cody Brook beat Technical player Aaron Burgess’ record of seven goals when he bagged eight, including a hattrick in six devastating minutes in the first half.
Cam Anderson grabbed five, Matt Kelly and Rahan Ali both got braces while Alex Cox, Aidan BarbourRyan and Lewis Wall also scored.
Otago University belatedly got its season under way and secured a 10 win over Queenstown at Logan Park, Ben Deeley slotting a penalty in the 76th minute.
In Wanaka, Adam Hewson scored midway through the second half to give the host a 21 win over Roslyn Wakari.
Earlier, Josh Lucas headed home to give Roslyn a 20thminute lead, before a Barry Grehan penalty tied the score five minutes later.