South Hobart overran Clarence United with an impressive second-half display after going behind early on Saturday afternoon at Wentworth Park to earn their first points of the WSL season.
Clarence were coming off the back of their first win of the season last week against Kingborough with some confidence, and they started the match showing it.
Just four minutes in Lilley Carissa struck a low-cross into the box which Emma Hall ran onto at the back-post and tapped in to make it 1-0 to the Reds.
Emily Grzinic was lively for Clarence early on and was a constant release for them down their right-side but United couldn’t add to their lead.
South had their opportunities too and in the 24th minute were able to get on level-terms through Pishon Choi who scored a side-footed volley from close range following a great cross from Aline Kidd.
Nine minutes later and South should have had the lead when Mary Coy’s cross from the right found Niki Moutsatsos at the front-post whose shot hit the side netting.
One all seemed a fair result as the whistle blew for half-time with both teams creating chances and having their fair share of the ball.
Clarence almost started the second-half faster than they started the first when Hall managed to pinch the ball from Georgia McMullen in goal for South, Hall looked set to score until a South defender managed to make a vital block.
But it would be South who would start the second-half on fire, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes.
In the 50th minute Clarence keeper Amelia Vanderneit lost the ball to Niki Moutsatsos who managed to finish coolly into the bottom corner to put South Ahead.
Just three minutes later South Hobart doubled their lead through Lucy Roberts who hammered a low-drive into the bottom-right corner.
South Hobart really lifted their game in the second-half, keeping possession for long periods and wearing Clarence out as Reds heads started to drop.
The chances kept coming for South but they had to wait until the 77th minute to seal the match when Moutsatsos battled hard to keep the ball inside the opposition box before slotting past the keeper to score South’s fourth and her second.
In the 79th minute Moutsatsos had the chance to complete her hat-trick when she was played in by Choi but was denied by a fantastic save from Vanderneit.
The referee blew for full-time and South Hobart had their first points of the season, and deservedly so.
Winning coach Craig Westwood was in good spirits after the match.
“I’m very pleased with the result and the first three points of the season,”
“We’ve been working on combination play in training… I think we dominated large parts of the match.”
South still sit bottom but are now just three points off Clarence although the Reds have a whopping 3 games in-hand.
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Solstice Photography[/caption]
Solstice Photography[/caption]