Strong Kingston City defeat Eastern Lions
By Billy Green
A strong Kingston City side has defeated Eastern Lions 2-0 despite a late fightback by the visitors on Monday night at The Grange Reserve.
With an early goal to Benjamin Osei-Safo breaking the even match, and an impressive performance by Stelios Konstantinidis to set up the second goal, Kingston redeemed themselves after being defeated by the Lions 4-2 earlier in the season.
On 13 minutes, Lions’ keeper Andrew Lightfoot rushed out of his area to retrieve the ball, but was beaten by Konstantinidis, but he was denied by a desperate defence guarding their unmanned goals.
Kingston seemed to have the slight upper-hand early, playing a low press when the Lions were coming out, choking them up front and looking dangerous on the counter.
At the 22-minute mark, Osei-Safo beat Lions’ defender Andrew Williams to a ball deep in the box, turning in and curving it over the keeper on a tight angle to give them a 1-0 lead.
As the game continued, the visitors began to create more space for themselves moving forward.
Matthew Parry broke up the wing as a result of Millar crashing into his teammate Nicholas Modaffari, but with time on the edge of the box he decided to cross and did so poorly.
Lions’ striker Munyaradzi Nyadzayo found Jordan Horn in the box on 40 minutes from a cross, but Horn’s deflection sailed well above the cross-bar.
Just before the close of the half, Millar outmuscled Matthew Parry off the ball and centred it to Osei-Safo, but his long-range strike fell wide.
As play resumed, Kingston still seemed to have a marginal dominance, with Konstantinidis playing an exceptional game.
On 52 minutes, he broke past the Lions’ defence and tapped a through-ball to striker McIlroy, but his strike from just metres out hit the post.
Konstantinidis was influential again minutes after, placing another through-ball to defender George Stavridis.
On the fast break, Stavridis made no mistake and scored to give his team a two-goal buffer.
Konstantinidis and Andrew Doig both had further shots on goal, either missing wide or being well-saved by Lightfoot.
Later in the half, the play swung in favour of the Lions through desperation to claw back the scores, but they were unable to pierce Kingston’s defence and shots on goal never looked likely.
Thomas Falconer placed a perfect cross into Williams, but went just above his head for what was possibly the closest effort.
The front duo of Philip Ajao and Nyadzayo made no impact early and tried to work themselves into the match late, but were unable to find a clean shot on goal amongst the manic defence of the hosts.
Kingston are now in third place for the NPL 1 East Ladder, drawing closer to Richmond SC and Melbourne Victory as the end of the season approaches.
Match Details:
Kingston City 2 (Osei-Safo 22’, Stavridis 55’) defeated Eastern Lions 0 at Grange Reserve
Kingston City: 1. Douglas LINDBERG, 2. George STAVRIDIS, 3. Jemal CLARKE, 4. James KARVELIS, 6. Nicholas MODAFFARI, 16. Nicholas STAMATIOU, 19. Andrew DOIG, , 7. Benjamin OSEI-SAFO (8. Deniz SABANOVSKI 79’), 11. Stelios KONSTANTINIDIS (12. Lucas MORREY 86’), 15. Hamish MILLAR (5. Nicholas TEICHMANN 72’), 9. Sean MCILROY
Unused Sub(s): 10. Jamie DE SMIT, 13. Peter KOUNDANIS
Yellow Card(s): Nil
Red Card(s): Nil
Eastern Lions: 1. Andrew LIGHTFOOT, 2. William ELLIS, 3. Matthew PARRY, 5. Thomas FALCONER, 6. Andrew WILLIAMS, 7. Ziggy RAZUKI (8. Mitch BEAMISH 65’), 10. Philip AJAO, 11. Munyaradzi NYADZAYO, 14. Jordan HORN (13. Jarrah CLEAR 55’), 15. Yianni TOUMANIDIS, 17. Shaun KENNY
Unused subs: 27. Robert HAVERCROFT, 9. Ryan WIDELSKI, 4. Cameron PAIN
Yellow Card(s): Nil
Red Card(s): Nil
Last Modified on 30/06/2015 10:19
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