Tudor Wests found the net late for the second successive week to snag a 2-all draw with South United in their clash on Sunday.
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After scoring with around seven minutes remaining to secure a scratchy one goal win over Kiwis the previous round, Tudors struck with around the same time remaining on Sunday to level the scores after trailing 2-nil early in the second half.
“It was a really intense sort of game. Souths came out and played well,” Tudors captain Brett Lobsey said.
“We didn’t start super well but then we found our groove towards the end of the match.”
They found their grit and connected better in attack.
From the position they were in, Lobsey was happy to get at least a point out of the game, and the way that everyone contributed.
“It was a really good team effort,” he said.
Despite squandering a 2-nil lead, Souths coach Sam Clifton thought his side played “pretty well” particularly in defence.
“I thought defensively it was probably our best game all year,” he said.
“Our back four, especially Tom Lane, we just marked up really tightly and played with very good intensity at the back. The thing that let us down again is we’re just not capitalising on our opportunities.”
They had a couple of open goals, and at least five two-on-ones or one-on-ones with the keeper they couldn’t take advantage of.
“Nick O’Connor has scored the majority of the goals the last four weeks, we just need others to chip in,” Clifton said.
That said, the last couple of weeks have been a lot better intensity-wise.
“As a team I think we are improving a lot,” he said.
Workies had earlier joined Tudors on top of the table with a 1-nil win over Kiwis.
The strength of both sides’ defence made it difficult for the opposition attack, Workies coach Andrew Farmilo commenting that both teams defended really well.
Hence there weren’t too many opportunities to score.
“It was a 25 to 25 sort of game, there wen’t too many circle penetrations,” he said.
Happy with the result, the effort still wasn’t quite at the level he would have liked.
“There were some good patches throughout the game,” Farmilo said.
“Probably the best thing was the defence.
“Coming into the finals you always want the defence to be as good as it can be.”
In attack they had some good passages but they probably resorted to overheads a bit too much, he said, rather than building the play up.
Tim McKenzie had a good game playing in the halves. Nick Chaffey also played pretty well, Farmilo said.
Kiwis captain Josh Worpel felt it was an opportunity missed.
They created enough chances for themselves to win the game. But it was the same old story – they couldn’t convert them.
“Our finishing let us down,” he said.
As Farmilo eluded to defensively they played well.
“The last few weeks I think we’ve defended pretty well, just a few lapses have let us down,” Worpel said.
“We were able to scramble pretty well.”
