SOCCER
STATE LEAGUE
By SAMUEL DARROCH
THE State League Division One South East ladder leaders have opened up a gap on third-placed Morwell Pegasus, after the Horsemen were held to a 1-1 draw by seventh-placed South Springvale on Saturday.
Top side Eastern Lions is now seven points ahead, while Mornington has created a five-point buffer over Pegasus in second.
Three sides – Noble Park, Langwarrin and Malvern City – are now all within striking distance of Pegasus at three points or less adrift.
The visiting Morwell led 1-0, and had a chance to bury the game with a penalty and South Springvale red card.
Pegs were unable to convert from the spot, and missed a one-on-one with the ‘keeper moments later, before conceding a back post header at the death from a corner.
Morwell coach Luke Cheney said a point on the road was always a welcome result, but on the balance a win should have been achieved.
“Disappointing, the fact that we had our chances to win the game and we lacked a little bit of discipline,” Cheney said.
“It’s good what we’re doing, but positioning wise and digging deep when we need to to get us over the line (needs work).
“That’s three games now where we could have and probably should have got the right result and we’d be in a different situation than third.”
After a scoreless opening half, Pegasus went ahead through an own goal when a low driving cross from Chris Wynne deflected off a defender and into the net.
However the South Springvale equaliser came as a nasty sting in the tail.
“We were 1-0 up, we missed our chances, but you can’t switch off – it would have been a great result,” Cheney said.
The competition will now break for the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
The Pegasus reserves were handed their first loss, 2-1.
P W D L F A GD PTS
1 Eastern Lions 9 8 0 1 20 11 9 24
2 Mornington 9 7 1 1 37 12 25 22
3 Morwell Pegasus 9 5 2 2 17 13 4 17
4 Noble Park United 9 5 1 3 19 13 6 16
5 Langwarrin 9 5 0 4 19 20 -1 15
6 Malvern City 9 4 2 3 23 15 8 14
7 South Springvale 9 3 4 2 17 11 6 13
8 Casey Comets 9 3 1 5 15 16 -1 10
9 Clifton Hill 9 2 2 5 20 24 -4 8
10 Diamond Valley United 9 2 2 5 16 20 -4 8
11 Doncaster Rovers 9 1 2 6 7 26 -19 5
12 Southern Stars 9 0 1 8 3 32 -29 -7
