RED MIST RISES FOR BURLEIGH

Musgrave 1 (P. Cronin)

Burleigh Heads 0

HT 1:0

MUSGRAVE closed the gap on title favourites Burleigh Heads to just one point after beating their Premiership rivals 1-0 in a highly controversial clash at Keith Hunt Park.

Burleigh finished the game with just seven men after Nathan Thompson, Peter Grierson, Lee Ramsden and Tim Dale, along with coach Col Phelan, were all shown red cards by the referee.

The points were secured for Musgrave on 30 minutes when Pat Cronin tapped in a right wing cross from Bruno Rodrigues and although the scoring ended there, the action certainly did not.

Thompson was first to go before the break when his dissent raised the ire of the referee, then Burleigh had a penalty claim denied and Grierson had a goal controversially disallowed early in the second half before he too was given his marching orders.

Burleigh were reduced to eight men when centre-back Lee Ramsden was ordered off, then Tim Dale earned himself an early shower as he thwarted a Musgrave attack with a last ditch tackle.

The colourful Phelan said his side should be almost proud of the fact that the scoreline was kept to 1-0 in the face of extreme adversity, but admitted the loss of several key players could be a factor in the coming rounds.

“We went out in the second half and had a really good go despite the fact we were a few men down. We battled away and still had our chances so in the circumstances I was pleased with the players; their tenacity was superb,” he said.

“We tried to get something out of the game and there were times when we had no defenders as we pushed forward. We’ll have a few out next week obviously so it’s going to be backs-to-the-wall stuff for us now.”

Musgrave cared little about the controversy though with coach Oscar Langone saying it was the result that mattered as far as they were concerned.

“It was a massive three points for us in difficult circumstances,” said Langone.

“We kept our cool and luckily things went our way. If we had lost this one we would have been seven points behind Burleigh so it really was a vital win.

“Although we try to take one game at a time it puts us in a good position. Other results have gone well for us this weekend as well,” he added.