Resounding win secures second place for Roslyn

Roslyn-Wakari secured second spot in the ODT Football Premiership with a 7-1 win over Southland at Ellis Park on Saturday.

With Queenstown defaulting its last two matches, this was the last game of the season. It gave Roslyn the perfect opportunity to go out in style and farewell the departing coaching duo of Colin Thom and Tony Van Gorp.

Playing with the wind, Roslyn struggled early on and Southland had a good spell of possession.

Roslyn striker James Govan failed to capitalise from close range on two occasions and Southland made the home side pay, when a well placed first-time shot beat Tom Stevens and nestled in the right-hand corner.

Roslyn woke up and Nathan Wilkie scored the equaliser, floating a ball on the volley over the stranded keeper into the far top corner from a distance.

Rosyln took control in the second half and things heated up, with some strong tackles from both sides that saw referee Jack Henderson rightly award a flurry of yellow cards. Harley Rodeka was flourishing in his advanced role and scored after rounding the keeper and taking a composed finish to make it 2-1.

Shortly afterwards, Matt Cordelle made it 3-1 with a driven shot from the right-hand side.

Wilkie got his brace when he rose at the far post to powerfully head home a perfectly delivered deep cross, with an hour played.

Straight from the restart, Southland gave away possession. Rodeka ran at the defence and clipped his shot inside the right-hand post and in an instant it was 5-1.

Coach Thom rang the changes, making a double substitution, but Roslyn did not relent and with Govan about to pull the trigger he was tripped in the box.

Shay Thom stepped up to take the penalty but his shot was well saved by goalkeeper Cody Kinraid diving the right way.

Another quick-fire two goals gave Roslyn a resounding victory.

First the ball was switched to the left flank and found a rushing Jak Stevenson, whose shot from distance gave Kinraid no chance. Again straight from kick-off, the ball was turned over and a square pass to Rodeka saw him pirouette on the ball, creating the space for him to simply roll the ball into the left corner.

Green Island had already won the league last week.

 - Neville Watson 

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