Good Chatham Cup showing from 'unlucky' Queens Park
“I’m delighted, not just yesterday but the last four, five weeks we’ve played really well and not necessarily got what we’ve deserved."
Queens Park coach Paddy Murphy says the quest on Saturday was to put together a good account of itself and despite a 1-0 loss feels they achieved that.
Invercargill club Queens Park AFC took on Dunedin club Green Island AFC at the ILT Turf in Invercargill in a Chatham Cup showdown.
Queens Park plays in the Southern Premier League which includes teams from Timaru south.
On Saturday they took on the Green Island club’s top team which plays in the top-flight South Island league.
Green Island scored the sole goal of the game just before halftime to claim a 1-0 victory.
“We played really well and were quite unlucky in the end,” Murphy said.
“I’m delighted, not just yesterday but the last four, five weeks we’ve played really well and not necessarily got what we’ve deserved. It’s the way it goes sometimes I suppose.”
Before the 1-0 loss to Green Island Queens Park was coming off two draws, one to Wanaka and the other against Green Island’s senior reserve team.
“Results will come, the way we are playing they’ll definitely come. It was nice to have a huge challenge with a team in the league above and the boys really took it on and did everything we asked of them really.
“We just wanted to give a good account of ourselves yesterday, the league is obviously the main focus.
“The last thing you want when a team from the division above is coming down is to get embarrassed and we certainly didn’t do that.”
The Queens Park coach was impressed with the performance of his team’s back four, in particular Spencer Cunliffe.
Murphy felt Cunliffe was probably the best player on the field.
Queens Park now eyes a showdown against Roslyn Wakari AFC in Dunedin on Saturday.
Roslyn Wakari is unbeaten in the league to date and sits second on the ladder.
They travelled to Invercargill on Saturday where they took on Southland club Thistle in the other Chatham Cup game played at the ILT Turf.
Thistle - which plays in Southland’s Donald Gray league - lost 4-0 to Roslyn Wakari.