Ruthless South Park Punish Cove
Cove 1-7 South Park
By Daniel Tait
South Park ran riot as they put seven past Cove on a bitterly cold night at Oak Farm. Striker Kieran Laverly grabbed four of the seven goals giving Cove manager Dean Thomas a lot to think about ahead of Saturdays visit of Raynes Park Vale.
Cove got off to the worst possible start as Laverly put South Park 1-0 up within the first minute. Laverly picked teh ball up on teh right hand side of the box before curling a sublime effort into the top left hand corner.
South Park doubled their lead little over seven minutes later when Laverly got infront of his man to prod home at the front post from a low David Smith cross. The busy striker completed his hat-trick on thirteen minutes from a South Park counter attack. As Cove were attacking a through ball hit Coves Dwayne Townsend on the heel, and South Park retained the ball and broke in numbers. Jack Stafford played the ball to Laverly on the edge of the box who then chipped the ball over the top of debut goalkeeper Luke Edgecombe into the far left hand corner.
Cove then seemed to pick up their game as striker Kevin Dalrymple headed onto the roof of the net, and could have hit the target had he delayed his jump for a moment. Dalrymple should have reduced the deficite when he latched onto a mistake by South Park centre-back Nathan Miles, however his shot went high over the crossbar.
Cove's Laurie Walters was unlucky with his effort five minutes before the interval. Walters picked up the ball on the left hand side of the box, when he opened his body and fired across the face of goal.
South Park then put the game beyond all doubt when they made it 4-0 on the 41st minute. George Smith beat the Cove offside trap and kept his head to slot past Edgecombe.
Walters was again unlucky in first half injury time when his composed finish was cleared off the line by desperate defending by Daniel Guscott.
Cove were very much the dominant team at the start of the second half and were rewarded when they pulled a goal back on the 61st minute. The in-form Andrew Harewood recieved the ball on the edge of the South Park box before stepping inside and curling a brilliant shot right footed into the left side of the goal.
However, South Park responded immediately and Laverly grabbed his fourth and South Park's fifth of the game. Laverly found the ball at his feet inide the Cove box, when he cooly slotted past two defenders and the goalkeeper.
South Park were dominant for the rest of the game, and it was one way traffic towards the Cove goal. Substitute Chris Smith made it six with ten minutes to go. Scott Robson crossed to the unmarked Smith who swivled and fired into the top right hand corner, giving Edgecombe no chance.
Smith scored his second and rounded the game off with seven minutes left on the clock. A costly error from Cove captain Eagles presented Smith with his chance as his back pass was not strong enough to reach goalkeeper Edgecombe, and Smith rolled home at the second attempt.
COVE - Edgecombe, Tancock, Millerick, Denness, Eagles, Townsend, Walters, Firth, Dalrymple, Harewood, Bond. Subs: Oladipa, Ball, Peters, Roberts, Thomas.
SOUTH PARK - Wastell, O'Sullivan, Ward, Miles, Guscott, Stafford, D Smith, M Smith, Laverly, Every, G Smith. Subs: Robson, C Smith, Bastin.
