THEY say a week is a long time in sport and South United was proof of that on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After being whipped by Tudor West the last week, South overturned a three-goal deficit to beat Services Workies 6-4.
Things were looking a bit bleak for South when Workies were up 3-nil but they kept on fighting and scored the last three goals of the game to win by two.
They scored the last in the final minute with Will Turner popping in his fourth.
“I’m really proud of all the blokes after last week,” South coach Chris Massey said.
“It would have been easy to drop our heads.”
“That was our main goal – to keep our heads up.”
“We were playing good hockey.”
Workies just got a bit of momentum.
He said at half-time they spoke about playing with a bit more structure and a bit more patience coming out of defence.
They were having a bit of trouble getting it through Workies’ midfield.
“They were shutting us down in the midfield before we got to our strikers,” Massey said.
“We changed a few things around and found more space.”
The changes brought almost instant success.
“We started the second half really well – scored two goals in five minutes,” Massey said.
“That got us on the front foot.”
He said everyone stepped up and did their job.
“It was the best we’ve played for a couple of years,” he said.
The defence particularly picked up, which it needed to after conceding 12 goals the week before.
“I can’t fault the defence.We made strong tackles,” he said.
Workies were guilty of taking the foot off the pedal.
“We just probably thought we had it in the bag,” coach Andrew Farmilo said. “We backed off and they lifted.”
“We took some poor options and didn’t work hard enough to get the second pass or make the easier option.”
Defensively they were also a step behind.
“We gave them too much space and let them get the ball and then tried to make the tackle,” he said.
He said they panicked at the back too.
“We threw the ball away rather than be confident and possess the ball,” he said.
Generally their ball control fell away in the second half.
“We didn’t control the ball much in the second half,” Farmilo said.
“The first half we controlled the ball well.”
In the earlier game, Tudor Wests pushed further clear at the top of the table with a 5-1 win over Kiwi Diggers.
Reid Gould and Sam Holt both struck twice and helped the competition leaders convert a 2-1 half-time lead into a four-goal win.
“We played a pretty good first half,” Kiwis keeper Martin Courtney said.
“We just ran out of legs and turned the ball over too much in the second half.”
Particularly coming out of defence, Tudors turned them over.
He said Dylan McClelland was good for them. Antony Doolan and Matt Wilson also had strong games.