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Aussie ace comes to desperate Everton’s rescueSOCCEROOS’ salvage expert TimCahill produced another late match-saving goal at the weekend — thistime for English club side Everton asit narrowly avoided FA Cup shame.

The Toffees were in massivetrouble against third-tier battlersCarlisle United in their third roundclash before Cahill predictablybroke a 1-1 deadlock with eightminutes left with a trademarkpoacher’s strike.

It was Cahill’s 50th goal forEverton in 192 appearances.

A last-minute Leighton Bainespenalty gave Everton a flattering 3-1margin after Carlisle hit the cross-

bar midway through the secondhalf. Cahill (pictured) had alsocreated an earlier chance for strikerJames Vaughan to equalise, but itwas ruled for offside.

Cahill and Everton teammateLucas Neill, who also played againstCarlisle, were among a raft ofEuropean-based Socceroos left athome by coach Pim Verbeek insteadof being called up for Thursday’sAsian Cup qualifier against Kuwaitin Kuwait City.

Verbeek’s decision to do withouthis stars proved a godsend forEverton manager David Moyes, whowas already without several players

through African Nations Cup com-mitments, injury and suspension.

Socceroos reserve goalkeeperAdam Federici was part of an FACup upset for English champion-ship side Reading, who held Prem-ier League powerhouses Liverpoolto a 1-1 draw. But Federici limped offwith 20 minutes remaining with ahamstring injury.

He will almost certainly miss thereplay at Liverpool’s home groundAnfield on Wednesday week. Hisinjury will also brighten the WorldCup spotlight on A-League keepersEugene Galekovic and DannyVukovic, who are vying for a start-

ing berth against Kuwait and per-haps a berth for South Africa.

Undisputed Socceroos No. 1 cus-todian Mark Schwarzer helpedFulham to a 1-0 Cup win over lowerleague Swindon Town, whilemidfielder Richard Garcia’s HullCity were hammered out of thecompetition 4-1 by Wigan.

Middlesbrough utility RhysWilliams played in his Champion-ship side’s 1-0 loss to Premier Leagueoutfit Manchester City. No PremierLeague side lost to lower leagueopposition, although cash-strappedPortsmouth also had to settle for a 1-1draw at home to Coventry.

Scoring goals in 2009

SCORE: Fury’s Jason Spagnuolo gets one past United keeper Mark Birighitti. Darwin’s own John Tambouras was among the Fury players

WARRIOR: Hellenic captain Nick Ferteklis missed out on a premiershipTALENTED TEEN: Nicky Cotis, 16, was named in the shadowAustralian schoolgirls (under-19) side

THE NT once again proved itselfto be a class host of national andinternational soccer. TheArafura Games went off with abang and A-League newcomersNorth Queensland registered amemorable win over AdelaideUnited in an historic meeting forthe NT game. There were win-ners, stars born and arrivals, asANDREW ALOIA reports

ROLL CALL OF CHAMPIONS

CASUARINA ruled the NorthernZone Soccer Premier League, win-ning its second treble in three years.But this time collecting the Presid-ent’s Cup, league championship andgrand final hat-trick was far fromconvincing. It wasn’t until the finalday of the league that the Rowdiessecured the premiership. But theydid hammer Hellenic 5-0 to finishthe year unquestionable champions.

HELLENIC’S women’s premierleague side stretched its all conquer-ing record to all new levels ofexcellence, winning its fourth treblein four years. It was a baby-facedlooking lady blues that got the betterof a class-field of challengers thatsaw Casuarina push harder thanever, Darwin Olympic enter the fold,Palmerston and Litchfield all makeup ground on the ‘Queens’ of the NTgame.

CASUARINA had a lot to thankMurray Nicholls for. The English-man nicknamed the ‘‘BicesterBomber’’ for the way he terrorisedopposition defenders was a hit on hisarrival to the Top End. He finishedthe league’s most valuable playerdespite missing six matches withinjury. For the record, the Rowdiesnever lost a games when he played.

THEY kept their cool and showedtheir class all the way to the end.East Timor were the toast of theArafura Games soccer tournament,downing a eight-man Aceh 3-0 in adrama-packed final that packed theDarwin Football Stadium house.Papua New Guinea made historywith a gold medal win in the women’stournament, beating Australian De-fence Organisation (ADO) 5-1.

PRIDE was on the line whenEngland and Australia met inArafura Games/Oceania Paralym-pic Championship final. Like theAshes, England came away winners.

NEWS that Football FederationNT signed former England internat-ional and Manchester United greatPaul Parker as a coaching consult-ant is the biggest coup for the sportin the past decade.

HEROESGLENN Thompson, handyman andgroundskeeper at Borroloola, wasthe first Territorian to be recognisedat Football Federation’s night ofnights. The 61-year-old was handedthe Community Service award forhis success in developing a strongfollowing in the round ball game inthe remote Gulf community.

HELLENIC’S return to the peak ofpremier league football was bestsummed up by the coming of age ofManoli Giallouris. His hat-trick inthe first Greek Derby of the season

was the difference in the 4-3 win. Itwas the first time the blues beattheir old foes in nearly four years.

WHEN Casuarina needed a spark,John Thorning stepped up. Thedefender will forever be known asthe man with the Midas touch,scoring the fastest goals in grandfinal history to start an avalanche ofgoals. He even finished with two.

CHAMPIONS they weren’t butPalmerston’s presence in the prem-ier league came down to the spiritand commitment of coach TerryDaye. His heartfelt plea not to berelegated saw the satellite city clublay solid foundations for the future.

YOUNG GUNSMICHAEL Tsounias became one ofthe youngest and had to beat one ofthe very best to win the premier

league golden boot. The 19-year-oldnetted 19 times as Darwin Olympic’sleading man ahead of Mitch Amidywho won four of the past five awards.

ERIC Tikoft was the find of theyear. The Centralian scored theNT’s only goal in the Territory’sfirst ever A-League test, beaten 9-1by Adelaide United’s under-20 side.

NICKY Cotis drew national ac-claim, named in the shadow Aust-ralian schoolgirls (under-19) side.

WHAT THEY SAID...

‘‘After all the years I’ve been away,the Darwin in me has never left.’’ —John Tambouras made a storybookreturn home when he led NorthQueensland Fury to their first everwin over A-League opposition at theDarwin Football Stadium.

‘‘What we have come across is a

great untapped pool of talent.’’ —Former Socceroo and AdelaideUnited assistant coach TonyVidmar was excited when the clubbranched out to adopt Central Aust-ralia as a home away from home.

‘‘The pressure is off us, we havealready won two things this seasonand have nothing to lose.’’ — Casu-arina captain Scott Piper spokeabout the Northern Zone SoccerPremier League Grand Final with-out a care in the world despite a lateseason stutter.

‘‘We are a tight-knit group and theboys, for the first time in a longtime, have faith in each other.’’ —Hellenic captain Nick Fertekliswas right, you gotta have faith. Butin this case it only got the Blues sofar, finishing a great season with a

5-0 grand final loss.

‘‘It has been so long since theybeat us and for it to happen twice inone season just can’t happen.’’ —Darwin Olympic’s Michael Melasdidn’t mince his words when ex-plaining the importance of gettingthe better of Hellenic in the secondGreek Derby of the Premier Leagueseason. Olympic won 5-2.

‘‘Little old Padres beaten by 13goals ... sounds a bit rich.’’ — MindilPadres coach Freddy Cardelliniwas right to say it. Some expectedPadres to fold against DarwinOlympic on the final day of thepremiership against a DarwinOlympic side that needed a torrentof goals to snatch the title fromCasuarina. Padres had the final say,drawing 2-2.