First Team:
Sunshine Coast Fire 5 v Redlands United 1
Report by Redlands United.
Sunshine Coast Fire netted three penalties to comfortably account for Redlands United 5-1 at Cleveland Showgrounds on Sunday.
Futa Nakamura scored a brace, while Paul Arnison, Reyze Kelly and Jordan Miller rounded out the visitor’s five goal haul. Elliot Ronto scored a consolation goal for Redlands.
Fire put the hosts under pressure from the start and forced Redlands to concede a penalty for handball barely nine minutes into the contest – Nakamura sending Redlands goalkeeper Andrew Ralph the wrong way from the spot to open the scoring.
The visitors stifled much of Redlands attacking momentum and were awarded a second penalty ten minutes later – this time converted by Kelly despite Ralph getting a touch.
Redlands fought their way back on 26 minutes when Nico Bechar’s pin-point left-sided cross found the head of an unmarked Ronto at the back post to reduce the margin.
The hosts spurned the chance to pull level when Ronto’s set-up Jayden Prasad, but the young attacker’s deflected strike was saved by Fire custodian Sam Nickolls.
Bechar continued to prove dangerous and a mazy run from the French winger on 33 minutes teed up Graham Fyfe at the top of the box only for the midfielder to guide his shot wide of the post.
Fire pulled further ahead soon after against the run of play when Miller controlled a diagonal ball before dispatching a composed near post finish.
The visitors effectively sealed the points prior to the break when Jed Zanos headed across goal from a free-kick, allowing Nakamura to turn the ball home for his 12th goal of the campaign.
The hosts remained stoic after the restart but soon found themselves four behind when Miller skirted a pair of Redlands defenders before being felled in the penalty area – Paul Arnison this time converting the spot kick.
Fire defended their lead from thereon with Michael Lee’s 60th minute strike off the crossbar proving the closest of the later chances.
Both sides remain in contention for finals football. Fire’s third straight win sees them sit two points adrift of the top four, while Redlands are a point behind in eighth place.
Redlands United 1 (Elliot RONTO 26’)
Sunshine Coast Fire 5 (Futa NAKAMURA 9’ 45’, Reyze KELLY 18’, Jordan MILLER 37’, Paul ARNISON 53’)
Under 18 Boys:
Sunshine Coast Fire 7 v Redlands United 2
The Fire produced an impressive performance against an average Redlands team on Sunday.
Fire took control of the game from the first whistle with some great individual performances, none more so than Jacob Fullock who displayed great movement off the ball to create chances for his team. His efforts paid off in the 8th, 18th and 49th minutes to seal a hat-trick. Goals to Jesse Wilson, Brandon Lee, Jordy Lloyd and Matt Kennedy took the scoreline to 7-2 in Fire’s favour at full-time.
“Fulluck was excellent to watch” Coach Paul Arnison said, “He thoroughly deserved his goals and could have had a personal tally of 4 if he had not missed a sitter from 1 yard out,” he joked.
The Fire was the better team in every department, but should have moved the ball a bit quicker once Redlands went down to 10 men, and the 2 goals conceded in the 15th and 30th minutes were sloppy.
“We will need to defend much better against the top teams or we will be punished,” Arnsion said.
However the boys work rate in the second half and the positive team spirit was good to watch. Fire is now looking going into the final 7 games of the season.
Man of the Match: Jacob Fulluck
Under 16 Boys:
Report by Manager Brett de Chastel
Sunshine Coast Fire 5 v Redlands United 0
After a three-week break, the Fire team was keen to get back into its pursuit of the Under 16 premiership. Although Redlands was towards the bottom of the table, the Fire had to reshuffle its line up with three players out for the season with long-term injuries. With probably the best playing surface in the competition at Redlands, this was a good opportunity to play strong football and build momentum going into some challenging games over the next few weeks.
Fire began to dominate early, keeping possession and stringing passes together through the midfield. The promising start was rewarded in the 11th minute; Alex van Kampen was covering at right-back following an overlapping run by Sean Pateman. Van Kampen won the ball with a good tackle and passed to Jordan Vieira. He provided a good pass to Cameron Nairn who beat his defender and the Redlands keeper with a right-foot shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal.
Keeping up their intensity, the Fire doubled the lead in the 23rd minute when they were awarded a penalty. Following a good interchange of passes in the midfield, Sean de Chastel provided the last pass to Timi Ajibola who was brought down by the advancing Redlands keeper. Ajibola converted the penalty.
Although Fire did not increase the lead before half-time, the team played some good football, particularly playing out from the back and through the midfield.
In the second half Fire continued to dominate and took a three-goal lead in the 48th minute. A Sean Pateman throw found Alex Van Kampen, who passed to Cameron Nairn. His cross was not cleared and the ball fell to Sean de Chastel inside the penalty area. He set up Ari Easton to side-foot home under the keeper from 10 meters.
Only 3 minutes later defender Liam Culpitt forced Redlands’ winger to turn back from the half-way line towards his own goal and kept pushing him backwards. Nairn intercepted the winger’s back pass to his keeper, dribbled around the keeper and beat the covering defender before slotting the ball home.
In the 68th minute, Nairn completed his hat trick. Ajibola ran at the defence near the top of the penalty area drawing in defenders. He swivelled on the ball and passed to an unmarked Nairn who had a clinical finish with his right foot into the bottom right-hand corner to complete the Fire’s 5 – 0 victory.
This result keeps the Fire in second-place on the table with a game in hand over top placed Brisbane Strikers.
Man of the Match – Cameron Nairn
Under 15 Boys:
Report by Coach Daniel Carew
Sunshine Coast Fire 4 v Redlands 1
After a two week break and with a number of players missing, the Under 15 Boys Fire travelled to Cleveland Showgrounds to take on Redlands United with Under 14 players Jesse Gibbs, Oli Duncan and Taj Suffolk filling in for the missing Under 15s.
The Fire started well with some very positive attacking play and was unlucky not to score earlier, with both fullbacks Abe Reeves and Callum Jones looking to bomb forward and create the overload.
The Fire was rewarded in the 17th min when good combination play from Jez Lofthouse , Josh Nisbet and Jones allowed Jones to chip a clever ball into Kobe Fuller who shot off balance with his left-foot to find the corner of the net.
Redlands’ launched attacks without really troubling Fire, however Fire was unable to really get any good possession; wasting passes and coughing up the ball cheaply.
A few chances arose for Reeves, Jesse Gibbs and Fuller but they were unable to add to the tally. Coach Daniel Carew said there were some patches of brilliant play but the final ball and some of the build-up play was just a bit off.
Fire stepped up the tempo in the second-half and stamped authority on the match with a goal just after the restart. Quick feet from left back Jones allowed him to play a neat ball in to Nisbet, who set Jack Bowen to unleashed a powerful strike that took a deflection off the defender into the goal.
Fire extended the lead when Gibbs received a ball from the throw-in and rolled his marker to place a great ball across the 6-yard box for Kobe Fuller to latch onto and slot in from close range.
The Fire had a few more chances however it was Redlands who scored next against the run of play. Redlands won a corner and a good delivery into the box saw a Redlands player head the ball off the crossbar into the net from close range.
This gave Redlands a bit of a spark and Fire looked under pressure for a good 10 minute spell, however great challenges from Brad Ellis and Jake Nalder saw the Fire hold strong.
Fire had another chance as a quick counter-attack allowed Jack Bowen to fire a shot which took another deflection only to be denied by the woodwork. U14 player Taj Suffolk was also unlucky when his 30 yard strike went just over the bar. Two minutes later, Nisbet’s neat combination play with Fuller just outside the box allowed him to strike a brilliant left-foot strike into the bottom corner of the net. Redlands did have one last chance to get something but a brilliant full stretch save from Josh Wall kept Redlands to a single goal.
“I’m happy we got a result and was good to score some good goals to but it was not our best game,” Carew said, “there were a lot of wayward passes, poor communication and our shape was not up to scratch but we have to remember we have had 2 weeks off, lost some key players and we were a bit rusty,” he said.
“The Under 14 players who came in were brilliant; Jesse Gibbs is always dangerous up front and was involved in a lot of our chances; Oli Duncan was fantastic in midfield and Taj was rapid at right back. They gave us some good options.”
“We were never really tested besides the 10 minutes after they scored and when called upon Josh Wall was brilliant in goal but we just were not convincing in our build up play. However we have that game out of our system and now we can plan for Brisbane city and tighten things up.”
Man of the Match: Josh Nisbet
Under 15 Girls:
Sunshine Coast Fire 2 v Olympic FC 0
The Fire girls played well to secure a 2-0 away win over Olympic at Goodwin Park. The nil-all score at half-time was an accurate reflection of the close contest.
The team played with great determination that included a number of excellent individual performances. The goalkeeper Katie and the back four were very solid heading off a number of challenges and doing a great job of distributing the ball into the midfield and up the wings.
The two goals came early in the second half and were part of at least 20 minutes of excellent football from Fire with some excellent passages of sustained possession and patience allowing a build-up and break in the front.
Just three minutes into the half Michelle le Roux delivered a through-pass to Lisa van Hooijdonk went 1v1 and finished in the top-right corner.
Just five minutes later Holly Vidulich won the ball on the right and delivered a pass to van Hooijdonk who combined with le Roux through the midfield for le Roux to slot the ball home and seal Fire’s win.
Player of the Match: Holly Vidulich.
Under 12 Boys:
Report by Coach Peter Higginson.
Sunshine Coast Fire 1 v Redlands 0
The Fire Under 12 Boys faced another tough game on Sunday; a small, dry and uneven pitch, together with a Redlands team determined to prove that they were better than their ladder position suggests, meant one of the toughest games of the season so far.
Redlands worked hard for 60 minutes, closing Fire down and forcing errors. Fire was the stronger team and in patches the boys played some quality moves with trademark interchanges going forward, but the Redlands defence played well and frustrated the boys with few clear chances. The Redlands keeper was also called into action and made some good saves.
The Fire were still scoreless at half-time, however had put in a good team performance.
The second-half was much more one-sided with Fire encamped in Redlands half for most of the 30 minutes. Fire keeper Ben Potter looked assured throughout while the back 4 defended well when needed and set up many attacks. The midfield broke down Redlands and looked to drive the team forward and the front 3 looked dangerous on the wings and at #9.
The chances came and went and it seemed a matter of time before one went in. Some good crosses were defended well, longer shots went just wide or over the bar and quality moves just lacked finishing.
One attack was typical of the second half, a sweeping move down the right, which ended with Sam Fleming on the ball. Sam glided past 1, 2 , 3 defenders into the box and then struck a great shot which the keeper parried. The resultant scramble looked like it crossed the line but it wasn’t conclusive so it remained nil-all.
The longer the game went, the more it started to feel like one of those days. Fire committed more players forward in search of the winner, leaving us exposed to a counter-attack, but a risk worth taking.
With the game drawing to a close, the breakthrough came. The pressure finally paid off from all our domination, Jack Beardsley tore at the defence and into the box, beating 2 or 3 defenders and into the 6-yard box, before shooting low. The keeper saved it, but Harry Arnison was on hand to steer the ball home in the 56th minute. Not the prettiest goal in the end, but arguably the most deserved of the season.
Fire saw the game out easily with the pressure firmly on Redlands for the last 5 minutes.
Coach Peter Higginson said the match was a hard game against a high work-ethic team.
“One of the Redlands parents commented that that was the best Redlands had played all season – that’s what happens when a top team comes to visit, and Redlands were unlucky not to come away with a point. This was very different to our 7v1 victory earlier in the season. An earlier goal would have settled us and the goals would probably have flowed. But a fair and deserved result in the end,” he said.
Man of the Match: An all-round team performance – every player worked hard for their team-mates. Hard to choose from the team today, but Man of the Match goes to Sam Fleming. A good defensive first-half and then brought added danger to the attack. Tireless effort, good 1v1 and running with the ball skills. So close to grabbing an earlier goal for us.
