Pines felled

CASEY Comets have produced a stunning three-goal final half to rob the Frankston Pines of victory at Monterey Reserve.
The Pines went 2-0 up in the 60th minute and looked in control of the match, but the fit Comets landed three goals in the remaining 30 minutes to secure their sixth victory.
A wise coaching change by Doug Chisholm that “re-shuffled the deck” and placed a greater emphasis on attack gave Negas Henry the chance to run on to a well-struck cross by Farai Murwira to give Casey their first goal.
With 15 minutes remaining Paul Presti levelled the scores with a 15-metre strike into the bottom right corner.
With the momentum in favour of the visitors, the young Pines side began to weaken.
“You could see that they were dead on their feet. To their credit they gave their all for the whole game but you could sense that another goal was to come,” Chisholm said.
And with 10 minutes left, the Comets found the winning goal.
Murwira directed a ball in from the corner that was guided into the net by captain Tony Saunders for the win.
“It is really satisfying when you work on a play on Tuesdays and it comes off in games,” Chisholm said.
The win is the fourth time this season that the Comets have come from a goal down or level at half-time to run out victorious.
“We always have a full squad at training and rarely does anyone pull out so it appears to pay off in the last minutes,” Chisholm said.
But the Comets, who have scored 16 of their 23 goals in the last half, do have problems of maintaining focus for the full 90 minutes.
“We harp on at training how we have to have better starts in games and we need to play a full 90 minutes, rather than just 30.
“We have fits and starts which could be due to our youth falling asleep at times, but that is why we have our experienced players … experience got us the win this time,” Chisholm said.
Whereas Casey managed to claw back a 2-0 deficit, Berwick City wasted a 1-0 lead over Knox City to drift further into the abyss of relegation.
Needing a win to pull itself out of the drop zone, Berwick now falls five points behind the rest of the competition.
In Provisional One Doveton upset Monash University 3-1 at the Uni Sports Grounds to move within one point of the top two.
Leon Buhic scored the opening goal for Doveton and continued to inspire his team as he and the rest of Doves prepare to take on Mooroolbark next week.
A win next week will give Doveton a four point buffer over its nearest rivals and set itself up for a chance at being promoted.
Berwick Kings are back on the winners list in Provisional Two by beating the University of Melbourne 2-0 at Betula Park.
The Kings were hammered 6-0 last week but the win over the Blues has elevated them two places and bounced them out of the relegation drop zone.
But Endeavour United continue their inconsistent season by drawing level with league-leaders Ashburton at Ashburton Park.
After a string of heavy losses to Lyndale and Caulfield, Endeavour were tipped to be overrun by an in-form Ashburton but a healthy first half keeps Endeavour’s promotion chances open.