Luca Vigilante scored a potential NPL TAS goal of the year contender in Riverside’s 3-1 win against Clarence at Wentworth Park on Saturday afternoon in what was a game of two halves.
The two teams met for the second time in thirteen days at the same venue, with Clarence taking all three points in the last encounter.
The Roo’s came out looking like they were determined to redeem themselves, zipping the ball around in possession and pressing hard without it.
Clarence were flabbergasted and could hardly put a pass together early-on and were made to pay for their poor performance in the 20th minute when Luca Vigilante put the visitors one-nil up.
The Argentine picked up the ball 30 yards out from goal and produced an absolute worldie of a strike that Clarence keeper Mathew Dyson did well to get a hand on, but he couldn’t prevent it from rocketing into the top-right corner.
Riverside continued their dominance throughout the half but despite numerous chances the northerners were unable to double their lead.
Clarence almost got an equaliser against the run of play when Kane Hatcher cut the ball back across the box to Jeremy Price who looked set to score until Roos Keeper Jarrod Hill made himself big and was able to turn it out for a corner.
But Riverside would eventually manage to score their second through Rhys Kinslow late in the first-half to give them some breathing room and another boost before half-time. The hardworking striker managed to get onto a cross from the left and nod home from close-range to score his third goal of the season.
Riverside were all smiles heading into the sheds for the interval but perhaps they had started to relax too soon.
Clarence came out looking rejuvenated and were pushing hard to try and get themselves back into the match which some would have thought may have been too far gone already.
Substitute Romolo Moynihan added some fresh-legs to Clarence’s line-up and he went close to scoring in the 60th minute after a tidy one-two with Hatcher put him in behind before he struck the ball into the side-netting.
He would redeem himself just five minutes later, burying a strike at the back-post following a well-directed cut-back from Cody Snell to bring Clarence to within a goal and give them some more life.
Snell continued to cause trouble for the Riverside defence with his acceleration and agility on the ball, and he created Clarence’s best chance for an equaliser.
The youngster dribbled down the right before producing another teasing low-cross into the box to find Liam Marsh two-yards from goal, but somehow the substitute chipped his effort over the crossbar when it would have been easier to score.
Clarence were caught napping in the 86th minute when a free-kick from deep within the opposition half was allowed to clear their defence before Aaron Campbell ran onto the ball and lobbed the keeper on the volley to seal the match.
Clarence coach Warren Burt was visibly upset about the result but was happy with their efforts in the second half.
“It’s good [for us] to have a couple of chances and it’s good to score a goal from open-play,”
“First-half they definitely played better… Second half we played a lot better, but I think they played better football than we did.”
Riverside coach Adam Gaetani was happy with the win but not the full performance.
“The first half we played some really good football, probably should have been 3 or 4 nil-up at half-time,”
“The second-half was disappointing… they came out and pressed us hard… they provided some danger but we got out of it luckily.”
The win takes Riverside three points clear of Clarence with another trip down south to play the Knights next weekend, while Clarence are away to the Zebras.
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Solstice Photography[/caption]
Solstice Photography[/caption]