The Tigers senior sides was in action again last week, with the over 35s travelling down to Pacific Palms to take on the Panthers.
In a tense battle the Tigers looked to have the upper hand, until 10 minutes into the second half when new Tigers’ striker, Jack Yeates lost his footing on the terrible surface and was unable to continue.
Yeates is the second player to sustain a serious non-contact injury on the Palms field in as many weeks, raising questions as to the safety of the pitch.
The fizz in the game went out, and it finished 0-0.
The Tigerettes continued their bright start to the season when they demolished the Tinonee Eagles 7-0 at Old Bar on Friday night.
Abby Watson got four goals and Meaghan Lambert scored two. Another by Ash Chambers saw the Tigerettes put a marker down as one of the teams to watch in the FMNC women’s southern league.
Saturday saw the men’s southern league Tigers travel to Lansdowne to take on the Old Bar Barbarians.
The Barbarians have been one of, if not the strongest outfit in the league since dropping out of Premier League two seasons ago, but despite winning the premiership each season since, they have failed to convert that into a grand final championship.
The Tigers travelled to Lansdowne having to give up a couple of players to the club’s premier league squad, and these late changes seemed to impact the outcome of the match.
Old Bar proved too strong and ran out winners with a final score of 5-1.
In its first hit out for the 2018 FMNC premier league season the Tigers reserve grade side was always going to be doing it tough against a resurgent Wallis Lake reserves, with late player pull outs causing a last minute reshuffle of the Tigers’ starting lineup.
The Tigers didn’t settle well and by the time they did the game was effectively over, with Wallis Lake going into halftime with a 4-0 lead.
The second half saw the visitors stabilise, but Wallis Lake had their tails up and scored two more to finish with a 6-0 win.
“That’s what happens when our training attendances drop like they have over the last two weeks,” Tigers’ reserve grade coach, Kevin Chapman said.
“We just have to put that match behind us and move on with the rest of the season now.”
Hayden Amato was excellent for the Tigers and a deserving player’s player award recipient.
The first grade encounter started badly for the Tigers, a communication error in the defence seeing Wallis Lake’s Ethan Perry get between James McBride and Jason Ward and lobbing the keeper inside five minutes to put the home side in front.
The Tigers steadied though, and began to recover from their slow start, until they received another blow as Mark Mallia had to be replaced inside 20 minutes with a foot injury.
Chances were squandered by both teams with Wallis Lake having the greater share of possession throughout the first half.
Tigers’ coach, Jason Coombes was forced to dispense with his game plan after having to substitute Kade Hopkins inside the first half as well, but just as it seemed like things wouldn’t go the Tigers’ way at all, Matt Whight squared the ledger with a fine finish across the keeper to see the sides go into the break locked at 1-1.
The Tigers were also forced to substitute their keeper at half time with a hand injury, bringing Rourke Banham into the custodian role for the second half.
A tense battle ensued, but with their bench all but emptied the Tigers began to tire as Wallis Lake continued to control the lion’s share of possession.
Just as it looked like the visitors might snatch a point from the encounter, with just under 10 minutes to go, Perry got in behind the Tigers’ defence and put the home side in front.
A mad five minutes then followed for the Tigers as they conceded twice more in the blink of an eye, leaving the final score 4-1 to Wallis Lake.
Ben Chapman was the Tigers’ players player on his first start in the top grade.
