Suburbs suffer big loss

Nelson Suburbs will have to beat Coastal Spirit in their final game of the Mainland Premier League season to achieve a third place finish after coming away with just three points from their double header weekend in Christchurch.

Suburbs managed to beat Nomads 3-1 on Friday night with Omar Guardiola, Matt TodSmith and Robbie Pearson all scoring second half goals to spark an exciting comeback after they went into the halftime break down 1-0.

They were unable to back up the result against Ferrymead Bays yesterday though, going down 4-0 to the new MPL leaders after conceding two penalties, both converted by Andreas Wilson.

Well aware that it was a mustwin match, Ferrymead took control of the second half and were rewarded with two further goals to Nikolai Molijn and Sho Mathieson.

Suburbs co-coach Ben Wright was obviously disappointed with the performance. Although he felt both penalty decisions, called for fouls in the box, were harsh, he said Ferrymead pressed well on defence and were fully deserving of the result.

‘‘They were fired up and they were up for it. In the first half I thought we played well. Unfortunately we got a soft penalty against us shortly before halftime and the second half we are definitely disappointed with because we let them get on top and we couldn’t keep the ball and they went on and scored three more goals,’’ Wright said.

The result leaves Suburbs two points behind Coastal, who they host at Saxton Field on Saturday. Wright said the team will be eager to put their heaviest defeat of the season behind them, motivated to finish their disappointing campaign in a positive manner.

For Ferrymead, their second win over Suburbs within the space of one week has seen them overtake defending champions Cashmere Technical at the top of the table with the finish line in sight.

Ferrymead Bays 4 (Andreas Wilson 2, Nikolai Molijn, Sho Mathieson) Nelson Suburbs 0 HT: 1-0