The Hobart Zebras came from a goal behind to claim a 3-1 win over the Kingborough Lions in Friday night NPL TAS action. The Zebras trailed to a Danny Cowen strike before the strike force of Sanders and Sklenar converted their sides territorial advantage. Isky Van Doorne then scored from a corner to complete the victory.

The Lions took an early lead thanks to a howler from their former keeper, Sheku Kamara. The keeper failed to control the ball twice, allowing Danny Cowen in who didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth by depositing the ball into the back of the net.

O’Connell almost had a similar moment up at the other end of the ground, launching an air swing at a long ball over the top but Nick Zammit was on hand to bail him out and clear the danger.

The Zebras started to take control of the game as the half wore on but they almost found themselves two goals down when Danny Cowen bent an effort onto the crossbar from range that was a coat of paint away from scoring. It was closer than any of the Zebras attempts, who headed into the half trailing and needing a spark.

That spark came pretty early in the second half, Dwayne Walsh producing a great cross for Jakub Sklenar who headed over the bar from close range from a chance you’d expect him to score from.

When Danny Cowen produced a goalline block to deny Sanders minutes later, there was a sense of deja vu creeping into the game, with the Lions hanging onto a lead despite the Zebras seeming control of the game.

Eventually, the pressure told and the Zebras drew level, Walsh again the architect from the right wing, picking out Sanders who controlled before quickly getting his shot off to square the game at 1-1 and half an hour to play.

The next 20 minutes was an end to end battle with the Lions responding well to being pegged back, in a phase of the game that saw both teams really looking to push on and win it.

It was Zebras who found the breakthrough with just under 10 minutes to go, Ben Robinson crossing for Sanders who chested it down to Sklenar, and the Czech marksman made no mistake this time, burying the chance to give his side the lead.

Any hopes of a late Lions fightback were quickly quelled when Isky Van Doorne curled in a corner that O’Connell didn’t deal with and saw it slide through his hands into the back of the net to push the lead to 3-1 and kill the contest off.