The Verri Industries Douglas United Dragons have soundly beaten the Southside Fury on Saturday night to keep pace with the top four sides in the Far North Queensland Premier League.

The 5-2 scoreline was evidence of the Dragons dominance throughout the match although the team were unhappy to concede two goals, especially one very late on in the match.

The Dragons handed debuts to two players and both acquitted themselves very well with Matt Hill in particular impressing in the middle of the park where he linked well with captain Nick Tither who pulled the strings and allowed the Dragons attacking weapons the chance to put the opposition under plenty of pressure.

The Dragons started brightly, passing the ball well and causing problems down both flanks although the final piece of quality was proving elusive. That was until Nick Despress cut in from the left and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom right hand corner.

And soon after it was two nil when Nick Tither rose to meet Logan Marsh’s free kick and head home to double the Dragons advantage.

The Dragons continued to press looking for the goal that would knock the stuffing out of Southside but it was the visitors who scored next in somewhat farcical fashion. A shot found its way under Gary Fitzgerald and into the bottom corner only to pass through a hole in the net and have a goal kick awarded.

The Southside players were understandably furious and had the referee inspect the net who then awarded the goal. This sparked five minutes of madness where A Dragons player was flagged for offside but stopped his run.

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The Southside players, thinking the whistle was going to be blown played the ball to Ian Marsh, who could not believe his luck, and lobbed the ball past the despairing keeper to restore the Dragons two goal cushion.

The message at half time was simple - Get the next goal and the fight would go out of Southside and so proved to be the case. It was a while coming though with Matty Smith hitting the post before substitute Jason Fox lashed the ball home from 18 yards.

It was soon five when Ian Marsh grabbed his second of the game, his shot taking a healthy deflection before finding the back of the net.

The only blot on the Dragons second half performance came late on when the opposition got in behind the defence and the striker made no mistake to give the final score of 5-2.

There was no shortage of Man of the Match candidates with both debutants impressing, Ian Marsh had his best game for a few weeks, Matty Smith and Nick Despress both worked tirelessly on the flanks but the Paddy’s Bar Man of the Match went to both Nick Tither and Valentine Akem.

Tither made the team tick in the middle of the park and really got under the skin of the opposition while Akem was a colossus at the back.

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