ON SUNDAY afternoon Redlands United made the short trip over to Carmichael Park at Tingalpa for Round 20 of the NPL against local rivals, Wynnum Wolves FC.
Straight from the kick-off both sides were hard at it, attacking at every opportunity.
Redlands were first on the scoreboard when Ryo Emoto launched a long-range effort from out wide and 15m over halfway, that soared over the keeper and into the top corner of the goal.
Wolves responded soon after with two goals in five minutes to take the lead.
With 28 minutes gone, Wolves got a third to take a two-goal lead at 3-1.
Redlands didn’t drop their heads but responded immediately through their skipper Michael Lee, who slotted home to reduce the deficit to a solitary goal.
The remainder of the half continued with both sides pressing forward and creating opportunities, but Redlands’ defence held firm while creating their own scoring opportunities in a very tight, hard first half.
The sides went into the break with Wolves holding a 3-2 lead.
The second half saw Wolves come out and increase their intensity and control of the ball to try and create more opportunities, but the Red Devils’ scrambling defence held firm and repelled Wolves’ advances.
However, with Redlands pushing hard and creating their own scoring opportunities, Wolves were able to score three more goals while denying the Red Devils.
Despite forcing the Wolves keeper to make save after save and having a decent penalty shout turned downed, the final score showed Wolves running out victors 5-2.
Redlands United Man of the Match was awarded to Daniel Mitwali. Well done Daniel, well deserved.
After the game, Redlands United head coach Garrett McDuling commented:
“Another really tough encounter away to Wynnum on Sunday afternoon. It was end to end with lots of chances and seven goals, so probably a pretty entertaining game for the fans.
“We were really positive coming into the game after a couple of really pleasing performances. So to come away with a 5-2 loss is really disappointing. A couple of lapses in concentration cost us a couple of goals but we showed plenty of fight to keep pushing right to the end.
“It leaves us 12th on the table with two games to go. It’s really important that the squad keeps fighting until the end because we want to win both of those games to finish the season with something positive.”
Next weekend is the final home game of the season for the Red Devils as they play host to Gold Coast Knights on Saturday at 7pm, with the Under 23s at 4.45pm.
This is a very important game so get your red on and cheer the boys on.
