Stirling no match for rampant Sorrento
Report by Paul J. Laverty
Sorrento extended their winning streak with a dominant display to dump Stirling Lions 3-0 at Macedonia Park on Saturday.
With Ryan Pearson and Brad McDonald pulling the strings in midfield and Sean Canham in fine-form up-front, Sorrento never looked in any doubt of grabbing all three points and continuing where they left off last week following their surprise win at league-leaders Inglewood.
It took just ten minutes for Sorrento to open the scoring with Tim Hill capitalising on his side’s early pressure and pouncing on a loose ball to slot home from 6m.
Two minutes later it was 2-0 with Canham reacting quickest to a long ball over the Lion’s defence and keeping his composure to lob the stranded John Perkins in goal.
Sorrento were more organised and confident from front-to-back against a Stirling side which, without manager Rob Milevski in the dugout who is overseas for a number of weeks, looked bereft of composure and quality.
In the second half there was little change as the visitors turned the screw with the movement of substitute Billy Quinncroft giving Stirling even more problems and Hill firing just over from 30m.
Sorrento sealed a convincing win in the 78th minute when Quinncroft tucked home a Canham knock-down to take them within two points of the hosts, sitting seventh with a game in-hand.
Stand-in Stirling coach Dejan Vilic was honest after his side’s lost.
“I don’t want to say we’ve run out of steam, we’re the highest goalscoring team in the league, we’ve just got to get our heads together,” he said.
“Like I said to the boys, winning’s a habit but so is losing. We need to cut that out.”
His mood contrasted with his opposite number Jamie Harnwell who praised his side’s return to form.
“We’re starting to play to our potential and capabilities and are scoring goals when we’re in control of the game,” said the Sorrento coach, who has not given up hope of overtaking Stirling and securing a top-four finish.
“We’ve made it hard on ourselves but that’s what this club prides itself on,” he said. “We do things the hard way.”
Stirling Lions 0
Sorrento 3 (Hill 11min, Canham 13, Quinncroft 78)
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Macedonia Park
Kick-off: 3.00pm
Referee: Tom Dowle
Assistant referees: Arvin Shan, Oliver Allen
Stirling Lions: 1. John PERKINS, 3. Lukas DE LIMA (12. Benjamin CAMPBELL 56), 5. Graham DORAN, 6. Brodie MARTIN, 7. Milorad VUJACIC (c) 8. David SESAY, 11. David MICEVSKI, 14. Amerson GARLEY, 15. Shane CASSIDY, 16. Mathiang MATHIANG (2. Michael PUGLIESE 45), 17. Teeboy KAMARA (13. William KESSEL 71)
Substitutes not used: 9. Jamie GIBSON, 20. Connor CAMPBELL,
Yellow cards: Garley
Red cards: nil
Sorrento: 1. James MORGAN, 6. Dary PLATTEN (c) 7. Alex MORGAN (5. Billy QUINNCROFT 63), 8. Ryan PEARSON, 9. Sean CANHAM, 11. Tim HILL, 13. Steven MCDONALD, 16. Niccolo SABATINI, 17. Reece VITTIGLIA (27. Brody KENNEDY 68), 20. Brad MCDONALD, 25. Joshua TUCKER (18. Jordan BROWN 82)
Substitutes not used: 22. Daragh KAVANAGH 60. Sam HERBISON
Yellow cards: Sabatini, Pearson
Red cards: nil
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