Suburbs sweep past hard-working Richmond

Nelson Suburbs showed its class as it swept past a hard-working Richmond Athletic side in a local Chatham Cup clash at Saxton Field today.

Suburbs beat Richmond 5-0 to advance to the next round of the Chatham Cup, the country’s premier men’s knock out cup. While in the other Chatham Cup game in Nelson today, FC Nelson beat Tahuna FC 3-2 in extra time at Tahunanui. That sets up a Suburbs v FC Nelson clash in the next round of the cup.

For Suburbs, it was a game it went into as heavy favourites, as it plays in the Southern Premier League, regularly playing against the best club teams in the South Island. While Richmond plies its trade in the Nelson Bays Football men’s first division.

Both sides could take positives from the game, for Suburbs it was a clean sheet and a return to winning ways after losing the last two games in the Southern Premier League. For Richmond, it was an opportunity to hold its own against the best team in the region.

Suburbs co-coach Neil Connell says he was pleased with the effort of his players.

“It’s never easy, these games we are expected to win, and you know you’re going to have a lot of possession and it’s just about breaking them down, and fair play to Richmond, they made it difficult for us.”

He says he was impressed with Noah Platt’s performance at the base of midfield.

Richmond coach Bruce Duncan says his players should hold their heads high after a strong performance.

“I think overall, there were a lot of positives, and the score doesn't reflect that sometimes. The way we structured the game, we kept trying to play. We’ve come a long way in the past three and a half weeks. So I think we just got to keep looking forward and we'll start to get some good results because we've got a great culture. So yeah, we're not looking at it as a negative. We're just looking forward.”

He praised the performance of Zac Muir and right back Derek Regenvanu. "Zac is the man, he's sort of the benchmark and sets the tone for the rest of the team and Derek is a young guy but his consistency at right fullback is superb."

The curtain-raiser to the Chatham Cup game at Saxton Field saw the Richmond Foxes beat the Nelson Suburbs Swans 7-1 in a Nelson Bays Football women’s first division clash.

The defending champion Foxes were too strong for the hosts, leading 2-0 at half time before pushing its advantage in the second half.