July 22, 2012
By Martin Stern
Football South Burnett
Nanango claimed the Evolution Solar Football League Minor Premiership on the weekend with a 3-0 win over a gutsy Barambah.
Barambah started the match with only 10 players. The club has had terrible luck in 2012 with several key players being sidelined with long-term injuries.
Barambah employed their spoiling offside trap as they did successfully against Wests a couple of weeks ago, when they held Wests to a 0-0 draw.
Nanango, who were also without several key players, found in difficult to break through the Barambah defence, but in the 10th minute it was Kieran Mangan that broke the deadlock.
Midway through the first half Barambah lost midfielder Jayden Mollenhauer to a serious knee injury and were left with nine players to see out the rest of the game.
Ten minutes before half time Bryce Connolly scored from a pinpoint cross to make it 2-0 at halftime.
Many teams would have capitulated in this situation, but Barambah defended like their life depended on it.
Nanango were thwarted by the offside trap on many occasions and if they did happen to get a shot on goal, Damien Sippel kept them out with some brilliant saves.
In the 63rd minute Kiernan Mangan breached the defence and scored his 20th goal of the season from only ten matches.
Barambah continued their dogged defence and even made some enterprising counter attacks which caught Nanango off guard at times.
All in all an interesting game and congratulations to Nanango for winning the Minor Premiership.
Best for Nanango were Kieran Mangan and David Ashby. Best for Barambah were Chris O’Laughlin, Craig Cluff and David Eagleson.
Results for Round 12 of the Evolution Football League played on Saturday, July 21:
In Kingaroy:
1st Div – Game postponed due to dangerous pitch
2nd Div – Wests 1 (Ryan Francis), Gunners 0
Women’s – Wests 1 (Bella Neil), Gunnettes 0
In Murgon:
1st Div – Nanango 3 (Kieran Mangan 2, Bryce Conolly), Barambah 0
2nd Div – Barambah 1 (Brendan Kelly), Nanango 1 (Kieran Mangan)
Women’s – Nanango 1 (Jacqui Downey), Barambah 0
Next week’s games:
In Nanango – Nanango v Gunners
In Kingaroy – Wests v Barambah
