Redlands United travelled over to Brisbane‘s Newmarket on Saturday evening for their Round 5 NPL Men’s fixture against Brisbane City FC.
The first half was a tight defensive tussle between two evenly matched teams. It was City who had the best opportunity of the match. On counter attack with Redlands caught a little short in defense, a ball was played across the Redlands goal for an approaching attacker. Their first time shot towards the far corner was well saved by Redlands Keeper, Will Smith.
At the half time break it was all square at 0-0 with all to play for in the 2nd half.
As the 2nd half started the Red Devils came out strong trying to create an advantage.
The next 20 minutes saw it all happen. Redlands defense maintained their form and with keeper Smith marshalling his troops, Redlands were able to repel City’s attacking forays.
On 65 minutes, the task became harder for the Red Devils when they went down to 10 men with a player sent off.
Redlands increased the pressure following the send off and a few minutes later Peter Klaassen took on the defense slid the ball across to Ryo Emoto whose ball towards the far post just eluded Josh Tufino at full pace. The Red Devils then produced three rapid fire chances with the City Keeper needed to produce save after save.
Unfortunately, City took the lead on 81 minutes from a free kick move and despite the Red Devils pushing hard for an equalizer it was not to be and the final score finished up 1-0 in favour of the hosts.
Post Game Redlands United Head Coach Griff Mansfield had this to say, ” A tough game away from home, the boys fought hard with 10 men but a disappointing result”.
Next week Redlands are at home on Tuesday evening in their Round 4 Kappa Pro Series game against Eastern Suburbs. Kick Off is at 7.30pm at Compass Grounds in Cleveland. They then have a week’s break for Easter before heading into another busy period.
Tuesday’s game against Easts should be a ripper. Get your red on and be there to cheer and support your Red Devils.
