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Devonport Strikers continued on their merry way towards the 2022 NPL Tasmania title with a comfortable 5-0 win over bottom-side Riverside Olympic at home at Valley Road on Saturday.
The expected bloodbath did not occur and the 3 points were all that the Strikers wanted.
Nick Lanau-Atkinson put the Strikers ahead on the quarter-hour and Yasin Mohammadi made it 2-0 in the 21st minute.
Brody Denehey’s strike 5 minutes later made it 3-0 to put the game out of reach of the visitors, who were probably relieved to go in at half-time with only this small deficit.
Denehey completed his brace in the 76th minute to take the score to 4-0, while a goal 2 minutes from time by Henry Andrews completed the scoring.
Devonport must have been satisfied that their lead at the top of the standings stayed at 8 points over second-placed Glenorchy Knights, while Riverside Olympic limped home to Launceston not too badly damaged from this encounter.
Glenorchy Knights were far from impressive in beating second-last Olympia Warriors 2-1 at KGV Park.
Knights were without midfielder Jordan Muller, who had sustained an injury at training, and striker Kyle Vincent, the former Olympia player, who is out for the rest of the season after back surgery.
A draw was a distinct possibility throughout as Olympia went close to scoring on several occasions with shots that just skimmed the bar or were saved by keeper Reef Murfett.
The Warriors, in fact, took the lead in the 11thminute with a cracking goal from 30 metres. Knights gave the ball away after a throw-in on their right flank. Joel Sammut gained possession and passed the ball inside to Simon Vivarelli, who advanced on goal before unleashing an unstoppable drive.
The shocked Knights regained their composure and drew level within 2 minutes when Austin Yost took advantage of hesitant and sloppy defending by Olympia to score from close range.
The winner came in stoppage time at the end of the first half. Tyler Harrison kept a cool head and played his way out of trouble inside his own penalty area when under pressure and advanced three-quarters of the length of the pitch before releasing Adam Gorrie down the left. His low cross was turned home by Nick Naden for what proved to be the winner.
South Hobart did just enough to down Clarence Zebras 2-0 away at Wentworth Park.
Josh Divin fired them ahead on the half-hour and a Nick Morton penalty in the 64th minute made it 2-0.
South had another effort disallowed, while the home fans had a strong question mark about the opening goal in terms off-side.
Kingborough Lions United had to surrender home-ground advantage when their game against Launceston City was moved from Clennett’s Lightwood Park to Empire Couriers Park.
The Lions appeared to shrug that inconvenience aside and Kobe Kemp scored the opener after half an hour.
Launceston City fought back strongly in the second half and Albert Amankwaa made it 1-1 in the 57th minute.
With two minutes remaining, Stefan Tantari went on a long run through the left midfield and finished with a superb left-footed shot inside the far right-hand post to give City victory.
Just when Kingborough were starting to string together a fine run of victories, they came unstuck and revealed their inconsistency.
They had Argentinian winger Romero Vilar on the bench, while winger Phil Kantzos was also out through injury. Adam McKeown started on the bench, which meant the Lions were somewhat toothless and relying too much on Noah Mies up front.
NPL Tasmania Standings (As at 9 July 2022)
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Devonport Strikers | 13 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 47 | 6 | 36 |
| Glenorchy Knights | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 10 | 28 |
| Kingborough Lions | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 35 | 23 | 25 |
| South Hobart | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 37 | 9 | 23 |
| Launceston City | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 23 | 24 | 19 |
| Clarence Zebras | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 21 | 31 | 11 |
| Olympia Warriors | 13 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 15 | 49 | 6 |
| Riverside Olympic | 13 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 64 | 1 |
Photo: South Hobart captain Nick Morton on the receiving end of a Clarence Zebras tackle. [PlessPix]
