Green Island clinched the Southern Premier League title for the first time in 30 years on Saturday.
It beat last year’s winner Mosgiel 4-0 at Memorial Park to take the crown.
Green Island settled quickly with Matt Brazier bullish up front and two early driving runs stretched Mosgiel’s defence.
Mosgiel’s Charlie Gruppelaar suffered a hamstring injury and, while he was attended to, his team started to get the upper hand.
With 20 minutes played, Lewis Wall and Cam Anderson linked and Anderson’s goal-bound shot was well saved by the feet of Christian Firth.
The rebounded loose ball was rammed home, but was correctly flagged for offside.
Four minutes later, a Kasim Ali piledriver was parried by Firth towards Beckham Wheeler-Greenall and his effort was blocked for a corner.
The corner was cleared forward and Green Island won a throw-in. The resultant long throw-in was chested down by Mosgiel’s Javier Langley.
However, no-one was on hand to clear the ball and it dribbled over the line for an own goal on 27 minutes.
Mosgiel won a succession of free kicks and, in the 33rd minute, Anderson swung one in and Rory Findlay’s glancing header went wide.
Wall and Anderson combined well again in the41st minute and Anderson’s well-struck shot was cleared off the line.
The opening minutes of the second half started with Mosgiel earning another flurry of free kicks.
In the 57th minute, Anderson then sent Wall free, but his shot was scuffed wide.
When a Matt Kelly effort stung the palms of Firth, Green Island sensed it was not going to be Mosgiel’s day.
When the Green Island physio rushed on to the pitch to assist an injured Tom Milton without the game stopping, Green Island broke forward.
When a shot came back off the post, Brazier was on hand to stab in the rebound after 59 minutes.
Another attacking Mosgiel free kick was cleared and Green Island again broke at pace.
Matt Milton scored to make the score 3-0 with 25 minutes to go.
Mosgiel was reduced to nine men three minutes later, when Lewis Wall and Rory Findlay were shown green cards by referee Jack Henderson .
With 10 minutes left, Green Island’s Eddie Wilkinson, who had been having a quiet game, came to life in devastating fashion. He made a run that saw him slalom through four defenders, bursting into the box and his curled shot was bent past Whittaker to give Green Island an emphatic 4-0 victory.
As Wanaka beat University 1-0, courtesy of Barry Grehan’s 78th-minute penalty, Green Island was rightly crowned champion with three rounds left to play having not yet dropped a point.
Northern came close to claiming its first points of the season, but was beaten 3-2 by Queenstown.
aversham beat Dunedin Technical 5-3 in the other bottom five game.
- Neville Watson
