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"Dubya" Duo Sinks City
The Brisbane Strikers marked their first home game at Perry Park in almost a year tonight with a comfortable 4-0 victory over another former NSL club, Brisbane City.
Three goals by the Brisbane Strikers’ "W" men - Russell Woodruffe (who got two) and Damien Waugh effectively put the result beyond doubt by half time, before substitute Matt Hornby rubbed salt into City’s wounds with a fourth goal in the ninetieth minute.
The Strikers now look ahead to next week’s trip to the Rochedale Rovers with their confidence high after bagging six points from their first two games of the season, having scored six goals and conceded none.
They would be foolish, however, to read too much into tonight’s effort. Brisbane City, who have had a tumultuous off-season marked by a player exodus, will probably be a tougher prospect by the next time these two teams meet. Tonight, though, they were completely outgunned and simply could not cope with the ball movement and off-the-ball running produced by the Strikers.
The Strikers were forced to reshuffle their back line before the match, with experienced sweeper Dimitri Theochari pulling out with a virus. This obliged coach Bobby Hamilton to start with Jamie Lowndes in Theochari’s spot, with Daniel Leach at left back and Adam Webber at right back. But if Hamilton thought he was running out of defensive options he needn’t have worried, for they were to have a quiet night. Damien Waugh and Stewart Drinkeld virtually ran the show in the middle of the park, bringing wide men Michael Butters and David Thomas into play at will, and nearly all the pressure was applied to the Brisbane City defensive quartet of Nash Catchlove, Nathan Walker, Anthony Scodellaro and Daniel Varma.
The match began quietly enough, with few fireworks in the first five minutes. Gradually, though, Thomas and Butters began to get into the danger zones on each flank and Butters, in particular, was linking well with front man Greg Di Losa. Di Losa produced the first heart flutters for City coach Salvatore Sotile in the eighth minute when he brought down a long ball from the right on his chest and fired across goal to produce a goalmouth scramble which ended with Russell Woodruffe having a shot scrambled off the line.
In the twenty-seventh minute Di Losa threatened Sebastian Monteverde’s goal again when he ran on to a pass lofted over the midfield by Webber and tried to lob the advancing City ‘keeper with his back to the goal. Di Losa’s cheeky effort went narrowly wide of the goal with Monteverde in no man’s land.
City responded with their first serious attempt on goal when Nick Serra stretched at the far post to connect with a high ball knocked over from the right wing. But Serra was unable to get enough purchase on his volley to direct it on target and Antony Hall watched it go harmlessly wide.
The home side got their breakthrough shortly afterwards, but there was more than a hint of good fortune about the goal. A spell of sustained pressure found Waugh in centre field about twenty five metres out with time to line up a shot. The tall midfielder pulled the trigger and the resulting shot made stinging contact with the torso of a City defender, deflecting into the net past the wrong-footed Monteverde.
It was 1-0 to the Strikers with the traffic heading inexorably towards the north end of the ground and Monteverde’s goal, and it took only a couple more minutes to make it 2-0. Di Losa, who was causing problems for the City defence with his mobility and height, was picked out with a high ball from the right by
Waugh, and nodded it down towards the far post where Woodruffe forced it home for his first goal of the season.
Only a minute later the Strikers were on the attack again with a move which finished with a left-footed volley by Waugh which brought an excellent save out of Monteverde. It was only a temporary reprieve, however, because before half-time the Strikers were in again with a goal that was almost a carbon copy of the second. A free kick was floated again towards Di Losa’s head to the right-hand side of the uprights and the big striker headed across the goal where Woodruffe was on hand, completely unattended by a negligent and negligible City defence, to volley it home from only a matter of metres.
At half time Strikers supporters were savouring the prospect of a six or seven goal haul, so dominant was their team. But it was not to be. The Strikers, with the points in the bag, were probably guilty of coasting a little in the second half. Although their movement off the ball and combinations were still fluent, and kept the City midfielders and defenders playing guessing games, they lacked a killer punch for most of the half.
The visitors were the first to seriously threaten in the second stanza, when a shot from Varma in the fifty-seventh minute went narrowly wide of Hall’s goal. It was notable, though, that even at this stage of the game Hall had not had to make a save.
A minute or so later, in a heartening sight for Strikers fans, Matt Bell was brought on, replacing Thomas. Bell, who is on the comeback trail from a leg injury, was slotted into the sweeper position, enabling Lowndes to play further forward in his favoured midfield role.
It took the Strikers until the seventy-first minute to produce their next real threat to the City goal, with some crisp interplay between Drinkeld and Di Losa finishing with Drinkeld firing a shot narrowly over the City crossbar from about 20 metres out.
Hamilton used his bench twice more in the half, firstly bringing on Brad Stevens for Butters, and then Matt Hornby for Nathan Carloss. For the remainder of the match Hornby was instrumental in many of the better moments the Strikers produced. In the seventy-eighth minute he and Webber exchanged perhaps four or five passes with each other down the right wing, with Hornby finishing the flurry by sending shot over the bar.
Webber, in fact, was getting further and further forward, perhaps fancying his chances of an extremely rare appearance on the scoresheet. He very nearly did so in the eighty-first minute when he was inches wide after getting a touch to a curling free kick which eluded the heads of the City defenders.
At this stage of the game the visitors, though sticking to their task manfully, were under heavy pressure as the home side appeared to sense that they had not done enough on the scoreboard to underline their total dominance of the game. Perhaps the best attacking move of the half was instigated by Bell, who began a move from the back that involved exchanging a wall pass with Lowndes which set the sweeper surging through the middle of the field. Spotting a run from the ever-busy Di Losa, Bell put through a slide-rule pass which cut the City defence open and left Di Losa with a clear run through on goal. Di Losa elected to slide a low shot to the left of the advancing Monteverde, but the City keeper did extremely well to read Di Losa’s mind and get down low to make a smothering save.
The luckless Di Losa was denied again a few minutes later, when an exchange of passes down the right led to the ball being cut back from the by-line to him. >From about six metres out, Di Losa fired a shot that looked home for all money, only for Monteverde to get something on it and produce a fine save to keep it out. It just wasn’t Di Losa’s night.
But the scoring was not quite over, all the same. The Strikers earned a corner kick in the last minute which was floated high to the back post where a Strikers player got his head to the ball first to nod it back towards the penalty spot. Here, Di Losa got above his defender to nod the ball back towards goal where Hornby, in turn, appeared to outjump a cluster of City defenders to force the ball home just under the crossbar.
That was the last action of the game, as referee Mark Shields blew the final whistle straight after the restart.
It was a well-deserved win for the home team, although a hard taskmaster (and Bobby Hamilton is one such person) might have demanded a bigger scoreline over opposition who were comprehensively outplayed on the night. Whether it was the ideal preparation for next week’s expected tough enounter with Rochedale Rovers is debatable, but it can probably do little to harm the confidence of most of the Strikers players.
Russell Woodruffe, most certainly, will have been heartened by scoring his two goals and taking out the supporters’ Man of the Match Award. Other strong performances were handed in by Drinkeld, Butters, Carloss and Lowndes, with Matt Bell’s efforts also encouraging as the elegant defender moved freely and added, strange as it may seem, an extra attacking option from the back.
It is difficult to know what positives City could have taken from what was a very difficult match for them. Sotile will probably have been pleased that his players did not drop their bundle after the devastating spell of ten minutes or so that saw them concede three goals in the first half. But there was no hiding the fact that there is some hard work ahead for them before they turn the corner and start producing the kind of football and results that their once proud club would demand.
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