After last weekend’s snow and ice around Dunedin, Saturday’s Football South Premier League was played in glorious sunshine.
With unbeaten league champion Caversham having a bye, there were some compelling match-ups across town.
Green Island hosted Northern at Sunnyvale, in a battle of the bottom two sides.
Northern looked dangerous early and Joe Wesney was a constant threat in attack.
On one occasion he threaded a neat pass through the defence for striker Shaun Richards to run on to, but his shot was parried by Green Island keeper Stewart Catto back into the path of Wesney, who shot centimetres wide.
Minutes later, Wesney was through on goal himself, only for Catto to again deny the visitors with a fingertip save.
Northern finally opened the scoring after 21 minutes, when Chris Bell burst through the home defence to place a shot past Catto.
The home side finally started to gel.
Striker Max Johnston looked dangerous and Jack Boland had a couple of efforts on goal.
Moments before the halftime break, however, Northern doubled its lead, thanks to a long range goal to Seamus Gray that sneaked into the corner of the net.
Green Island improved in the second half, and got a goal back when Bob Cox scored moments after being brought on as a substitute.
Northern held on for a 2-1 victory which consigned Green Island to bottom spot on the table.
At Tahuna Park, Dunedin Technical dominated the first half against Roslyn Wakari and deservedly led 2-0 at the break, through two Alistair Rickerby goals.
Colin Thom’s Roslyn side was mediocre in the first half and constantly gave possession to Technical, but it was a different story in the second half, when playing into a strong breeze seemed to force Roslyn into playing a more measured passing game.
Roslyn got back into the game soon after the break when Ben O’Farrell latched on to a cross to score, and his side continued to craft half-chances for pacy strikers Tennessee Kinghorn and Ben Kiore. Roslyn’s standout player was undoubtedly young defender Reid Hulleman.
As Roslyn pressed for an equaliser, with only a couple of minutes remaining Technical finally punished it when Ross Howard pulled a low cross towards Tim McLennan, who slotted it past the helpless Stevens from the edge of the box to cap a 3-1 victory.
With two games to play, Rickerby is now out on his own in the race for the Golden Boot, although Caversham striker Lewis Jackson will still fancy his chances, as his side has a game in hand.
At Memorial Park, an even first half had Mosgiel and University tied one goal apiece, before the plainsmen netted three unanswered goals in the second half.
Impressive youngster Rahan Ali opened the scoring for Mosgiel, Matt Kelly bagged a brace and Isaac Snell completed the scoring in the 4-1 victory.
The women’s Premier League wrapped up with Dunedin Technical Premiers and Roslyn Wakari both recording wins.
Technical finished the season six points clear of its rivals.
- Morgan Jarvis
