THE Coffs United Lions defeated cross town rivals Coffs Coast Tigers 3-1 in the Coastal Premier League’s battle of the big cats.

The Tigers took the game to last year’s champions with their brand of one touch possession football and it was flying winger Innocent David who opened the scoring as he sprinted down the left wing and slotted the ball inside the goalkeeper’s near post.

The Tigers went into half time leading 1-0 but the Lions came out firing in the second half with a scintillating Habib Noorani run down the right flank, who delivered a pass into the six-yard box for Lorenzo Rigonito to side foot into the net.

A fine Nick Mallett strike from 25 yards put the Lions ahead and Joel Hampson sealed the three points with a ripper of a free kick into the top corner of the net.

Lions assistant coach Adam Woods anticipated one goal would lead to more.

“We went to the break down 1-0, but we said ‘trust the process’ because if they go down one, they’re going to go down a few because they’ll start chasing and that’s what happened.

“It’s very, very rare that we get kept scoreless.

“It’s very, very rare because we’ve got all these guys who can score goals so for a team to keep us scoreless they’ve basically got to park a bus and Tigers aren’t like that.

“We knew we’d have a goal in us, it was just a matter of if it was one or two or three.

“Tigers kept the ball for long periods of time, but they kept it in areas where we wanted them to keep it and when they got around the eighteen-yard box that’s when we pressed a little bit quicker,” said Woods.

Tigers coach Luke Stow said he wasn’t disappointed with the result.

“I’m not disappointed; I still think we’ve got a fair way to learn and I think they were definitely fitter, there’s no doubt about that but I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed.

“We’re still learning to play as a team, mate, to be honest.

“I think it’s about more time together and actually getting on the training pitch to work on how we want to attack games with the process and getting it in place.

“That’s important,” concluded Luke.

 

By David WIGLEY