South Hobart and Kingborough Lions will meet for a spot in the Westfield FFA Cup Round of 32, after both clubs won their Semi-Finals to proceed to the Lakoseljac Cup Grand Final on Queens Birthday.
South Hobart denied Beachside’s of a fairytale Lakoseljac Cup final berth, defeating the Championship side 4-0 at Sandown Park.
It was touted as a David and Goliath battle and in reality, Goliath proved far too strong for David with the superior strength and fitness of South shining through to see them comfortably through to their second Lakoseljac Cup Final in as many years, leaving them just one win away from again representing the state in the Westfield FFA Cup.
The game remained deadlocked until the 23rd minute, when a Beachside player kept a ball alive instead of killing the danger, the attempted clearance fell into the wrong hands, finding South Hobart winger Chris Hunt inside the centre of the 18 yard box, who cut it inside for spearhead Brayden Mann, who made no mistake and slotted coolly.
South Hobart made it 2-0 within a minute of the second half resumption, Beachside must have come out of the rooms asleep as Ben Hamlett pounced on a loose ball and scored a goal with only 47 second gone in the second half.
From that point forward, Beachside had a great 30 minutes and really took the game to South. On another day with lady luck smiling on them, they could have ended up back in front of South Hobart.
As many cup games go, Beachside went chasing the result late and with tired legs they faltered in defence. South Hobart scored two goals inside the final five minutes to kill off the game.
Firstly, Mann ran onto a through ball in the 87th minute and squeezed a shot under the body of the approaching Kieran Siedler to make it 3-0. Hess, who had snuck on as a substitute just after South’s third goal was fouled inside South’s attacking 18-yard box, Hess calmly slotted the penalty away to put the final nail in Beachside’s coffin.
In the other Semi-Final Kingborough Lions endured a tough opening half to defeat Northern Rangers 3-1 and make their way to their first Lakoseljac Cup Final in 15 years.
Lions young gun Dean Watkins was the difference between the two sides, keeping Kingborough’s Westfield FFA Cup hopes alive and kicking with a second half double.
It was a see-sawing opening half with positive football from both sides. The Lions started the brighter of the two sides but were made to pay for missed chances, with the Rangers scoring a goal against the flow of play in the 14th minute.
Englishman Adam Edwards burst down the right and cut it back for Schalde Andersen, who took advantage of some indecision from Lions gloveman Andrew Duncan, beating him to the ball before dispatching the ball into the back of the net.
Kingborough Lions then levelled the ledger with Captain Nick Cuthbertson bobbing up at back post to nod home a Keiron Dale free kick. The ball was swung in from Dale and the Rangers failed to clear the danger, seeing it fall over the back for the Lions skipper, who nudged home untroubled.
Watkins missed a chance to gain a Kingborough lead from the spot but just four minutes after squandering the chance, Watkins redeemed with a spectacular solo goal, cutting through the Rangers defence before finishing off with precision into the bottom corner.
Rangers were forced to chase the game and that left them vulnerable at the back and Watkins took full advantage, racing onto a ball over the top, before producing a composed lofted finish past the helpless Barnard, sinking the Rangers and sending the Lions into the Lakoseljac Cup final.
Click here for all of the Preliminary Round results so far.
