Hyundai Queensland State League – Round 3
Sunshine Coast Fire vs. Capricorn Cougars
Sunday April 11, 2010
Kane Frampton – Staff Reporter
The Sunshine Coast Fire are sitting pretty atop the Hyundai QSL ladder, after recording their third win on the trot with a 4-2 defeat of the Capricorn Cougars.
Goals to Tyson Holmes, Yuta Gonai, Greig Henslee and Jai Cross were enough to earn the Fire maximum points in possibly their best performance of the season thus far.
After conceding early last week against QAS, the Fire looked eager to start on the right foot, and early signs were positive.
After a clever passing move on the left flank between Shaun Blackman and Yuta Gonai, Jonathan Rose played a long ball toward Aaron Brazendale at the far post, but the goalkeeper did well to intervene.
Minutes later, Alex Henderson rose well to meet a Corey Towle corner, but his header flew over the bar.
For the Cougars, a neat one-two between Fergus McIntosh and Tristan Fraser created a scoring chance, but Martyn Davis shot wide from the edge of the box.
The best chance of the match went begging on 15 minutes, when Holmes found Blackman in acres of space in the penalty area. Blackman’s left foot shot flew high of goal.
In the Fire’s next attacking move they claimed the first goal of the match.
Rose aimed a throw-in towards Holmes, who outmuscled his marker and let the ball run into the penalty area. Keeping his feet, Holmes curled a well-placed shot into the far corner, leaving Cougars keeper Tim English flat-footed.
After 21 minutes, the Fire’s lead looked to be in jeopardy as Capricorn won a penalty.
Cougars captain Fraser stepped up to take the penalty, and shot towards the bottom left corner of goal. Fire keeper Antony Hall saw it all the way, and got down brilliantly to tip the shot around the upright for a corner.
Spurred on by this lucky escape, the Fire increased their attacking pressure, and looked likely to add to the score in the following minutes. While the Cougars continued to create chances, the Sunshine Coast’s central-defensive pairing of Alex Henderson and Markus Kronblad combined well to snuff them out. Hall looked assured as ever between the sticks, marshalling the defence.
A second goal seemed likely, and fans didn’t have long to wait.
A through-ball by Brazendale released Gonai, who outpaced his marker and dribbled into the penalty area. Sensing the defender bearing down on him, Gonai calmly cut inside and finished from close range, making the score 2-0 after 32 minutes.
Contributions came from all across the park for the Fire as the first half wore on, with Jonathan Rose and James Stinson controlling the defensive flanks well.
Greig Henslee almost added a third to the scoresheet on 43 minutes, after his long-range chip beat the keeper but went just high.
The end-to-end football of the first half prevailed after the break, with the Fire continuing to utilise their strength and speed on the flanks.
On 52 minutes, the Fire’s continued pressure was rewarded with a third goal. After the Cougars keeper spilled a long ball, Henslee positioned himself well to pounce on the rebound, scoring with a low shot.
3-0 was perhaps an unflattering scoreline for the Cougars, who were competing bravely. However, it was the Fire who had the next clear-cut chance, when Holmes almost scored a brace in open play after drilling a volley into the crossbar.
The Fire made three substitutions midway through the second half, with Blackman, Brazendale and Henderson replaced by Jai Cross, Sam Knight and Rhys Roberts respectively.
Knight had an immediate impact, earning a corner after showing pace down the right flank.
The scoreline became more lopsided on 65 minutes as the Sunshine Coast added a fourth goal.
The hardworking Corey Towle cruised down the left wing, before delivering a perfect low pass across the face of goal to Cross, who made no mistake in his first appearance of the season.
While the Cougars could be forgiven for simply playing out the final minutes, they seemed to be determined to add some respectability to the score. They scored their first on 67 minutes, with Justin McMullen finding space and scoring from close range, and added a second minutes later when Michael Cay scored with a fine volley from the edge of the box.
The Fire regained composure after these lapses, and once again asserted themselves as the dominant team. Gonai was unlucky not to score his second goal after he again showed great awareness to wrong-foot his marker, but his shot missed just wide.
After seeing last week how quickly a game can turn, the Fire looked desperate to not allow the Cougars a late comeback, and played tidy football in the remaining minutes. Jai Cross almost scored a fifth for the Sunshine Coast after beating his marker for pace and forcing a classy save out of keeper English.
At the final whistle, the score was 4-2 to the undefeated Sunshine Coast Fire, in their most unified team performance of the season to date.
Coach Aston Bell was delighted with his players’ teamwork and competitiveness.
“(We are) playing to our players strengths, getting a lot of possession and creating opportunities, as everyone has witnessed today.”
Despite the positive result, Bell was concerned that the Fire let in two goals in quick succession.
“The instruction at half time was to keep our shape and discipline, even though we were on top and dominating the game,” Bell said.
“It’s instances like that, a few minutes where we went to sleep, where we’ve let the team back in.
“Once we’ve dominated a game we want to finish it off, and stick to our game plan.”
Bell set his players a target of three wins from the opening three games and they have not disappointed.
“We have ticked all three boxes before we head down the Bruce Highway to face the Strikers next Saturday night,” Bell said.
Next week’s clash with Brisbane is likely to be a good indicator of where the team is at, and is the Fire’s first away fixture of the 2010 season. Kickoff is at 7pm at Perry Park on Saturday April 17.
Final Score: Sunshine Coast Fire – 4 (Holmes, 17, Gonai, 32, Henslee, 52, Cross, 65)
Capricorn Cougars – 2(McMullen, 67, Cay, 69)
