By Mark Wakefield

Hobart Jeep Zebras and Northern Rangers played out a tense 1-1 draw at KGV yesterday afternoon, with both goals coming in a late flurry of action following a drab 0-0 arm wrestle for 88 minutes.

Zebras equalised in added time, cancelling out the Rangers 89th minute opener that they barely had time to celebrate. The game itself failed to reach any great heights until the closing minutes and was no great spectacle for the most part, instead a showcase of quality defence.

 

A great midfield battle unfolded for the entirety of the game with Harry Thannhauser and Yitay Towns doing battle with Henry Fagg and Harrison Thomas. All of the midfielders had excellent games with Thomas being the pick of the bunch with a very tidy display at his new club.

Jayden Hey was the best of the defenders, his pace and vision was a sight to behold and he played some absolutely cracking long balls that found targets constantly out of defence. Tyler Harrison was also good again and Scot Graham Wright was once again more than serviceable in goals.The Zebras defence has been the league's best this season and it continued to prove the case up against a pretty fearsome forward line of the Rangers.

For the Rangers, their front three toiled hard, but were really overwhelmed by the pressure that the Zebras defence was able to put on them. Nick Lanau-Atkinson was the pick of their front three and had one shot pushed against the post prior to his strike late in the game.

The teams went into halftime locked at 0-0 and the game kept flowing along at 0-0 until the 89th minute. It looked certain to finish 0-0 as their was little goal mouth action to make a fuss about, until a piece of brilliance from Nick Lanau-Atkinson made it 1-0 to the visitors. The ball fell to him outside 18 on the right and he volleyed a low shot into the bottom left of the goals on a diagonal angle, Wright could only watch as the ball nestled into the net.

To their credit the goal sparked the Zebras and they pushed even harder to chase an equaliser. They found it through a free kick in the 92nd minute from 20 yards in what proved to be Zebras last chance of the game. Ethan Engels put his hand up and pulled rank on his more senior team members to take the free kick. He certainly didn't disappoint as he thundered his shot into the top left window with the Ranger's keeper left grasping at thin air. The crowd were left exasperated by the frantic final five minutes and I'm sure that many wished the whole game had been just as exciting.

Rangers' coach Dane Hudson was left frustrated by the match and disappointed his team couldn't close out the game.

"A bit disappointing, the game didn't really reach any great heights, we went 1-0 up with a couple of minutes to go and a poor decision by one of our centre backs - it was a great finish from a free kick. It was a very frustrating game," he said.

"Disappointing that we were 1-0 up with a couple of minutes to go and sort of more than fair that it did finish one all."

Hobart JEEP Zebras Coach Chris Hey was reasonably pleased with the style of football his team played.

"It is probably the best football we've played for a while possession wise.

"I thought we looked a lot more composed with our possession tonight than we have in the past few weeks.

"Both defences were pretty good and held up well."

Hey was still at a loss to explain his outfit's lack of attack.

"To be honest with you no (I'm not sure how to fix it). I think we're trying to set up the perfect goal instead of having an earlier shot.

"We just have to work on it, we've got good players up front but they're just out of form.

"We've really lacked penetration down the flanks and he (Kurt Engels) gave us that tonight. We certainly didn't expect him to play for 90 minutes but he looked like he was fine so we kept playing him."

The result leaves the Zebras in third position on goal difference after Kingborough Lions took the points in their game earlier in the day. As a result, the Rangers have dropped down to fifth and have Devonport Strikers breathing right down their neck, with only goal difference separating those two sides as well.

Next week the Zebras may get some finishing practice up against the struggling Knights, while the Rangers meet an improving Devonport in what should be a cracking clash.

PS4 VICTORY LEAGUE ROUND 10 RESULTS

Kingborough Lions 2 (Lewis Verdouw 36', Danny Cowen 43') Launceston City 1 (Dom Rossi 11’) HALF TIME 2-1 - 2:00PM/Saturday 6 June 2015 (Lightwood Park, Kingston)

 

 

 

Devonport City Strikers 11 (Michael Holden 2’, 9’, 77’, Brody Denehey 19’, 23’, 49’, 53’, 56’, Bobby Eaves 26', Daniel Syson 59', Beau Blizzard 87') Glenorchy Knights 0 HALF TIME 5-0– 2:00PM/Saturday 6 June 2015 (Valley Road, Devonport)

 

 

 

Olympia FC Warriors 1 (Gavin Hoy 20') South Hobart 1 (Brayden Mann 52’) HALF TIME 1-0 – 3:00PM/Saturday 6 June 2015 (Warrior Park, Warrane)

 

 

Hobart JEEP Zebras 1 (Ethan Engels 90’+2) Northern Rangers 1 (Nick Lanau Atkinson 89’) HALF TIME 0-0 – 4:30PM/Saturday 6 June 2015 (KGV Football Park, Glenorchy)