Johnny Kolk saves the day for Thistle - Southland Soccer 1988......

The pressure was on Thistle soccer in Invercargill, 1988 when they were facing the reality that they were going to lose to the lowly ranked Dunedin Technical side.  Trailing 2-1, Thistle had to pull out all stops and it was up to Johnny Kolk to score late in the game to make it a draw 2-2.

With a Graeme Robertson goal at the beginning of the game, it looked like Thistle was going to win easy.  But it was when University's Paul Kuggelelyn quickly replied at a ferocious pace and within five minutes, Boama Oamfo backed up, that Thistle realised the situation they were in.
The ball was pushed up and down the pitch without any real attempt at goal until Kolk scored to even the score.

Old Boys had a more convincing win over Roslyn Wakari .  They were determined to come away with a win as it was still raw, there loss to Queens Park the previous week 4-1.
Old Boys came out firing and was 3-0 up by half time. Daryll Fowler, Lindsay Thomas and Steve Andrews all scored.
After the break, Old Boys tried to defend the lead, and gave Roslyn an even break, Jamie Branson took advantage of this and scored after a low pass from the wing.
With their tails up Roslyn's Fowler scored a second goal.  Thistle had never been so pleased as to hear the final whistle.
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Queen Park was white washed by Green Island 7-0.  An improvised team due to injury struggled to contain the pressure.  Things were so desperate for QP that coach, Lindsay Barnett, had to strip and sit on the reserve bench.
Brian Harstonge and John Wekking stretched QP's defence which made it easy for them to find strikers, Shane Robertson and Dave Milton.
Players to perform were; Peter Deans, Nigel Edwards, Bryce Popham, Neil Cruickshank, Phil Hawkes and Jeff Barnes.
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It was probably a weekend that Invercargill teams would rather forget, as Waihopai coach Nobby Clark's team was beaten 2-0 by the second on the table, North End United.
At 30 minutes into game, Rodney Fleming scored from a free kick, 
Anthony De Ruyter was constantly bombarded with balls and he drew applause from the crowd to his brave efforts in saving most goals.  Ironically one lapse of concentration saw him score an 'own goal'.  A lobbed ball by Philip Kelly beat De Ruyter, hit the crossbar and bounced into the Waihopai net off the back of his head.
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Two other games saw top team, Mosgiel with a 4-0 win over Technical remain on the top of the ladder, Goals came from; Paddy McGarry, Chris Della Roca and two from James Letts.
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