Southern outplayed by quality opponent

Southern United midfielder Danny Ledwith (left) runs on to a loose ball as team-mate Conor O’Keeffe watches and Eastern Suburbs players Owen Parker-Price and Adam Thomas appeal for a free kick during the national football premiership match at Sunnyvale Park yesterday. Photo: Christine O'Connor

It was not just the rain that put a dampener on Southern United’s start to the new year.

The side was completely outclassed in a 6-1 loss to Eastern Suburbs at Sunnyvale Park yesterday.

Suburbs was quality from start to finish and showed why it is among the national premiership’s top teams.

It led 2-0 at the break, before three goals in five minutes early in the second half snuffed out any chance of a Southern comeback.Southern coach Paul O’Reilly said it was a "big lapse", although he felt the first two goals killed the side.

He said while it was a poor performance, he took responsibility for leaving the team exposed.

"We were trying to get ourselves back in the game, we probably took some risks too early and left ourselves open," he said of the second-half lapse.

"One or two of them were great finishes.

"But no complaints today result-wise, I think we got what we deserved from our performance.

"I’ll take a lot of responsibility for that.

"As the head coach I set us up to play, we tried to get on the front foot and it didn’t work.

"Sometimes you try to do things and have a real go against top-quality opposition.

"We are trying to be a bit more on the front foot, but today it didn’t work for us.

"We didn’t get close enough to them and they outplayed us."

A nice interplay from an early corner allowed Andre de Jongh to give Suburbs a 1-0 lead.

That could have been doubled on several occasions, but the Southern defence scrambled well.

However, Callum McCowatt netted the second in the 43rd minute, after being delivered an exceptional cross from Dalton Wilkins on the left sideline.It started a landslide which halftime did not halt.

Dominic Wooldridge made it 3-0, before Elijah Just capitalised on the counterattack and finished well from outside the box two minutes later.

Another two minutes later Just added another.Southern stemmed the flow, although it never genuinely looked like scoring until its goal late in the game.

McCowatt scored his second in the 84th minute, before Garbhan Coughlan pegged one back for Southern from the penalty spot.

While admitting the tactics had not worked, O’Reilly said Southern was pushing to play more positively.

In past seasons it has looked to contain the top teams, as opposed to taking risks and trying to beat them.

"We’re trying to evolve into a team that actually goes for games.

"There was a number of times last year when we just parked ourselves deep and we were very hard to break down.

"We’re trying to evolve on from that.

"Sometimes when you do that you leave yourself open and exposed and today they had players that can really hurt you."

In other results Auckland City beat Waitakere United 2-0, Team Wellington beat Hamilton Wanderers 2-1 and Hawke’s Bay United beat the Wellington Phoenix 4-1.

Canterbury United played Tasman United in the late game.