A week after falling six points behind the Strikers in the title race, the Glenorchy Knights have cut the gap at the top of the table back to 4 points by taking advantage of Devonport's slip up with a comfortable 3-0 win over Launceston City at KGV. Goals from Smith, Walter and Nkoso secured the result in a match in which they were rarely troubled, with the result beyond put doubt early in the second half.
Rob Gerrard came close to giving City an early lead when he headed over the crossbar from close range from an early free kick but it was as close as they would come all match, with Knights seizing control soon thereafter and not looking backwards.
The opening goal came from Cade Smith, who was left with a simple back post tap in after some nice combination play from his fellow attackers. Nkoso started the move, finding Walter who tapped it back to Thomas Young, who proceeded to put it on a platter for Smith to make it 1-0.
Young's service was again the catalyst for the second goal as he whipped in a simply superb cross from the right hand side that teed up Alex Walter to glide into the area and nod home the second.
It was just the Knights second shot of the half but they were making their attacks count when they could break through the lines of City as the match found itself largely bogged down in midfield for much of the first half.
City occasionally threatened but were largely restricted to shots from long range and any hopes of a fightback were just about extinguished shortly after the restart.
Joffrey Nkoso took the ball on the left wing and instinctively drove inside, skipping past Gardner before punching a low ball across to the back post on his left foot. Whether by design or not, nobody else would touch the ball and it slid into the far corner to make it 3-0 and sap any hopes of a second half comeback.
City did produce a number of second half chances to pull one back, with a few long range lobbed efforts almost catching Hart out, but the Knights keeper was sharp when required and did enough to protect his clean sheet in what was a fairly listless second half in terms of the contest between the sides.
For Knight it was job done as they saw the game out and claimed the win that sees them cut the Strikers lead atop the table back to just 4 points at the halfway mark of the season. With Devonport still having to travel South to take on both South Hobart and Knights in the run home the title race is well and truly alive in what should be an exciting second half of the campaign.
https://youtu.be/RSZvTLWZH-I