Springvale Districts Brendan Ashman flies for a mark against Lyndale on Saturday.By Marc McGowan
AN impressive performance from Springvale Districts has been marred by a second-straight goal umpiring controversy for Lyndale.
Springvale ended the third quarter with a 24-point lead, but the goal umpires conferred and decided to take a goal from Lyndale’s total and add it to the Districts’ score.
Lyndale coach Danny Scott said in the past two weeks they had been robbed of goals.
“We kicked the first three of the last quarter, so it had a big impact on the result. We could have been right back in the game,” he said.
Lyndale have again gone through the process of lodging an official complaint to the Southern Football League.
“We have made an official complaint, but are still waiting to hear back from the league about last week’s complaint,” Scott said.
Despite the controversy, Springvale Districts’ coach Stephen Hughes was very happy with his troops.
“It was a good win, but I was more pleased with the way we went about it, rather than the margin. Slowly, but surely, our game plan is starting to develop,” he said.
After a tight first quarter, where only a goal separated the sides, Springvale broke the game open in the second quarter, kicking five goals to one and controlled the game from then on.
Scott bemoaned his side’s performance in the quarter.
“It was a really disappointing second quarter. We were smashed in the midfield; they probably had double as many clearances as us,” he said.
Springvale has now won four of its past five games and rebounded well from last week’s loss to Oakleigh Districts.
“I always expected us to play better footy in the second half of the year, with all our new recruits. We’re beginning to gel,” Scott said.
Springvale star Darin Joyce is still another one to two weeks away with a knee injury, but exciting prospect Steve Aitken should resume in the reserves this weekend, after breaking down with a hamstring twice earlier this season.
