Olympic’s lead at the top is cut to two points as Strikers and City slip further away from a top four spot. Big wins at the bottom for Magpies Crusaders, Redlands United, SWQ Thunder and Cairns make the fight to avoid relegation just as tight as the fight for Finals football.
Sunshine Coast FC 0
Magpies Crusaders 2 (Jansen 10’, Perez 18’)
Kawana Sports Precinct Field 2
Crusaders secure the points
Magpies Crusaders picked up their second win in a row with a 2-0 victory over Sunshine Coast at Kawana on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes when Warwick Jansen opened his goalscoring account for the season, swiftly followed by Pablo Perez’s second of the year.
Bottom placed Sunshine Coast – who are now eight points adrift at the foot of the table – have now lost five on the bounce and are without a win since Round Two.
SWQ Thunder 2 (Cooper 34’, Dunn 66’)
Brisbane City 1 (Thomas 58’)
Clive Berghofer Stadium
Thunder at the double!
SWQ Thunder have completed the double over Brisbane City for the first time in their history with a 2-1 victory at a chilly Clive Berghofer Stadium on Saturday night.
Travis Cooper opened the scoring for the Thunder with his second goal of the season in the first half – but City hit back after the break through Owain Thomas’ first of the season.
The Thunder regained the lead shortly after being pegged back with a lob from Lathan Dunn to consign City to consecutive defeats and ease the Thunder’s relegation fears with a third straight win for the Toowoomba-based side.
Lions FC 1 (Madle 55’)
Olympic FC 0
Lions Stadium
Madle’s debut goal punishes league leaders
New signing Marek Madle wasted no time in making a mark for his new side with his goal being the difference between Lions and league leaders Olympic at Lions Stadium on Saturday night.
Olympic – perhaps feeling the effects of playing 120 minutes mid-week against Moreton Bay in the FFA Cup – were unable to penetrate the league’s meanest defence to slide to a second defeat of the season, and to add insult to injury had Matt Mundy sent off late.
Lions – who have now conceded just one goal every second game in the league this season – have moved five points clear of Strikers to hold onto fourth spot with their second win in a row.
Gold Coast United 1 (Hills 48’)
Redlands United 5 (Warrilow 35’, Tomic og 47’, Sherwood 55’, Kuboyama 80’ 85’)
Station Reserve
Redlands fight back
Redlands United completed the double over Gold Coast with a sensational 5-1 victory at Robina on Saturday night.
Alex Warrilow opened the scoring for the visitors with a free kick towards the end of the first half and Redlands extended their lead thanks to an Acim Tomic own goal shortly after the interval.
New signing Fraser Hills responded immediately to grab Gold Coast back into the game but Redlands ensured the points travelled back up the M1 with further goals to Jake Sherwood and a brace for Shuto Kuboyama as the Japanese striker re-discovers his goalscoring boots in the nick of time for Redlands.
This is Redlands’ first win in six matches and moves them out of the bottom two, whilst Gold Coast remain in seventh.
Moreton Bay United 1 (Arop 52’)
Brisbane Strikers 0
Wolter Park
Moreton Bay defeat ten-man Strikers
Moreton Bay United recovered from playing 120 minutes midweek to hand ten-man Brisbane Strikers their third NPL defeat in a row at Wolter Park on Saturday evening.
Strikers – who had goalkeeper Nathan Archbold sent off for fouling Riley Campbell in the 23rd minute – battled valiantly despite reduced to ten-men for the second time in three NPL matches but fell behind in the second half to a Chom Arop goal.
Moreton Bay have now benefited from their opponents losing a man to a red card in successive matches and will stay in third spot on the ladder whilst Strikers fall five points behind Lions to fifth spot.
Western Pride 3 (Bird 32’, Pengelly 37’ 86’)
North Queensland United 1 (Colquhoun 75’)
Briggs Road Sporting Complex
Pride pile pressure on North Queensland
North Queensland United dropped back into the bottom two after falling to a 3-1 defeat at Briggs Road against the reigning Champions Western Pride – who closed the gap at the top to just two points – on Saturday night.
Mitchell Bird scored his second goal of the season to put the hosts in front before Andrew Pengelly doubled the Pride’s advantage with his tenth goal of the season five minutes later.
The visitors had Michael Eisenhut sent off just after the hour mark but were next on the scoresheet thanks to Cade Colquhoun’s first goal of the season, but the Pride were able to restore their two goal advantage late on thanks to Pengelly’s second of the game.
Cairns FC 2 (Taylor 71’, Carroll 90+3’)
Brisbane Roar Youth 1 (Courtney 66’)
Barlow Park
Carroll late show condemns Roar to fifth straight defeat
Cairns FC have rescued the points from the Brisbane Roar Youth after coming from a goal down to secure a 2-1 victory at Barlow Park on Sunday afternoon.
Brisbane Roar took the lead in the second half thanks to 15 year old Jordan Courtney but the hosts roared back to equalise thanks to Josh Taylor’s 12th goal of the season before Jamie Carroll popped up with the winner in the third minute of injury time.
Cairns completed the double over the young Roar and have now jumped above their guests into eighth spot on the ladder as the Roar continue to slide down the table after suffering their fifth straight defeat.
Words: Simon Smale
Photo: Andrew Hudson