Mindil Padres 8 University Rangers 1

It was oh-so-easy for Mindil
Padres on Saturday night, as goals from Danny Mitchell (4) and Freddy Cardellini
(3) and a late penalty from Simonec Autridge helped the Padres
demolished University Rangers 8-1 and cruise into the 2010 Pre Season Cup Semi Finals.
Few could have predicted how easy
it was for Padres to dump their rival out of the competition. As Uni
Rangers, so often Padre's bogey team in cup competitions, rarely threatened
through out the match.
Buoyed by a vocal home support,
Padres flew out of the traps. Within the first 10 minutes Freddy let fly
twice from distance, once narrowly missing the left-hand post, and Bully
Finney fired a right-footed shot over the bar.
There were scares for the Padres
early on too, a 20-yard free kick in slippery conditions forced Padres' keeper
Ray Cheung into a smart save down by hisleft hand post. But with Rui and
Red holding the fort in the back, and Brazil and Will solid in midfield,
Rangers were limited to only long ball tactics and shooting from distance.
After such a lively opening it was
hardly surprising to see the ball in the back of the net early on. Even
less of a surprise was that the game’s opening goal arrived courtesy of
Freddy Cardellini. Back from long absence due to injury, he was hungry for
goals and his powerful shot from just inside the area crept past the Ranger’s
keeper to make it 1-0.
Danny came on in the first half
and terrorised the Rangers defence immediately, dribbling past several
defenders and slotted home with his left. It was rainy goals between Freddy and
Danny, with two goals each from them to make the score 4-0 at half time.
Tino was extremely pleased with
the boys during the team talk in the dressing room, but he instructed the boys
to concentrate and play hard for the remaining 45 minutes. He brought on new
recruits from Buffs, Luke and Jigga, to give the boys some experience of first
team action.
Padres heeded and came out firing
in the second half, and Danny completed his hat-trick soon after the restart,
before adding another with a cool finish. Freddy wasn’t going to be outdone and
he came on midway though to complete his hat-trick with a bullet header from
Jesse’s pin-point cross.
Rangers did grab a lone
consolation goal late on after Padres back line had a lapse in concentration. Although
in truth, it would have done little to ease the embarrassment Rangers'
men will feel after being outclassed for 90 minutes.
Indeed, there was worse to come for the Uni
Rangers. Simonec was in a clear goal scoring position and was tripped
inside the area, and the ref had no option but to point to the spot and show
the Rangers defender a straight red. Simonec stepped up for the resulting
penalty and hammered home Padres's superiority, putting the icing on the cake with
an emphatic 8-1 scoreline.