River swamps Hay Park

June 15, 2010 on 5:30 am | In MATCH REPORTS | Comments Off

With World Cup fever well under way Margaret River’s multinational team took to the field on Sunday afternoon intent on progressing to the next round of the SWSA Pioneer Cup.

Standing in their way, Hay Park United, a team that recently won the their last 3 games convincingly.

From kickoff River looked sharp, passing and running with the ball with the confidence of a team that has played together for years.

It was obvious our Brazilian import Alex Costa was surely missed last week in Collie because combined with Sam Parrot and one of our British lads Simon Corke in the midfield River was flowing full strength with confidence and possession.

The crowd could sense it was only moments away from a River goal. What started from the backline with Jon Richards clearing to Woody Hangartner on the wing who gives to Glenn Skyrme (at left) outside the 18 yrd box.

Glenn seems to just rush past two defenders like a breeze on water and fire in a low shot to the corner of the goal. Score is 1-0.

Hay Park were determined to peg the difference back even but the defence of Margaret River was rock solid.

In fact the defensive attack of Shogo Maida overlapping with Jay Allington on the right wing to cross the ball from deep in Hay Park’s defensive half was nothing short of the play of the day.

It was met by Sam Parrott who calmly slotted the second for River.

With the rules of this cup game allowing for both teams to have rolling interchange MRiver was making the most of its 5 substitutes.

Our super sub Danny Kaleta made a huge impact in the midfield as soon as he went on and resulting in the second goal from his tough and strong play. MRiver went to the half time break knowing the game was far from over.

The second half saw little change to the intensity that was being played by both teams.

However Hay Park to its credit had more chances than the first half and kept Jon Malpas on his toes in goals.

At one point in the game a powerful shot from just outside the box having to be deflected over the crossbar.

Lee Gaynor (at left) from Ireland was stitching potato sacks from his oppostion with boundless runs in the forward line.

Our third goal came when what seemed to be a bad tackle on Alex Costa turned out to be hand ball in the penalty area. Simon Corke stepped up to kick an unconvincing penalty goal and a comfortable 3-0 scoreline.

Several injuries allowed more subs in Gordo and Harrison to come on. Gordo replacing Woody who was sublime in defence until forced off with injury.

Harrison was unlucky not to score a fourth goal after lobbing the keeper only to hit the crossbar and bounce back to the keeper. The final score was 3-0 to MRiver. Best on ground for River was Sam Parrott.

This week we play Hay Park again in Bunbury. All spectators welcome. Bus leaves 11.00am front of Aquatic Centre.