South Hobart took a giant leap towards retaining their McDonald's NPL Tasmania title with a commanding 3-1 win over arch-rivals and perennial challengers Devonport.
Peter Edwards’ men produced arguably their best performance of the season to surge seven points clear of Strikers.
Goals from Alex Walter, Sam Berezansky and a nonchalant outside-of-the-boot strike from Kobe Kemp put South in control with the home side’s late reply coming through Josh Tollervey’s 19th goal of the campaign.
Devonport have a game in hand to play at Launceston United before South can wrap up the title with back-to-back home games against Launceston City and Riverside Olympic.
Second-placed Kingborough’s 3-1 win at Launceston City kept alive their fading double hopes.
Joel Badger’s hat-trick made it nine goals in six games while Dennis Mensah’s penalty wasn’t enough to extend City’s run of four straight wins.
The picture at the bottom became a lot clearer as victories for Glenorchy and South East United kept Ulverstone and Launceston United firmly stuck in the two relegation spots.
Anthony Mamic and Jeremiah George scored in a 2-0 win for Knights who could afford to see Nic Naden’s stoppage-time penalty saved by Ulvy keeper Harry Dale.
Meanwhile a Callum Brown hat-trick plus one for Sam Sartori saw South East win 4-1 to complete a double over Launceston United who replied through Teshawn Johnson’s long-range free-kick.
Clarence picked up their first win in six games after twice coming from behind to beat Riverside 4-2 and leapfrog them into fifth place.
James Pelletier and Matias Rodriguez scored for Olympic but a Keenan Douce-inspired Zebras comeback involved a Michael Hatcher brace plus goals from Ryan Lynch and Viktor Gordon.
Devonport closed in on another McDonald's Women's Super League title but their 2-1 win at Taroona was far from straight-forward.
The Pirates took a shock lead when Olivia Bekeleski claimed just the fifth goal Strikers have conceded this season.
However, familiar saviours Asuka Doi and Whitney Knight struck twice in six minutes to confirm Devonport’s 19th-straight win this campaign.
The chase for second continued apace with Glenorchy and South Hobart recording comfortable simultaneous Sunday wins.
Knights’ 5-0 triumph over Riverside saw Bronte Gadon and Eve Swan continue hot scoring streaks before Jemima Brown banged in a 14-minute second-half hat-trick.
Meanwhile South also overcame northern opposition, beating Launceston United 4-1.
Sami Watkins put them ahead before Francesca Johnstone’s corner led to an own goal. Willow Avens reduced the arrears but Matilda Heddle’s late double sealed the points.
Captain Hannah Walsh was the pivotal figure in Kingborough’s 2-1 win at Launceston City.
The English playmaker scored both Lions’ goals but also saw a penalty twice saved by Alecia Davy before Hollie Jones struck City’s stoppage-time consolation.