Miners mauled by confident Cougars

Steele Taylor | 12th July 2010


THE Whitsunday Miners' coach Troy Mundy labelled his side's performance against Capricorn Cougars as “the worst game we've played this year”.



THE Whitsunday Miners' finals hopes disappeared at Ryan Park yesterday with coach Troy Mundy labelling his side's performance against Capricorn Cougars as “the worst game we've played this year”.

The Miners were humbled 5-0 by their arch-rivals at Frenchville, where Whitsunday tumbled to second-last on the Queensland State League ladder.

“It was a bad day at the office – big time,” Mundy said.

“We've got to have a good look at ourselves and that includes me and the coaching staff.”

After competing in a much-hyped trial against A-League outfit North Queensland Fury at Beaconsfield on Thursday night, the Miners were unable to bring any intensity to the round 15 clash.

“We just didn't turn up,” Mundy said.

“We were very lethargic from the start. We had no cohesion and when we could get the ball moving we couldn't find the last pass.”

The hosts wasted no time in troubling the scorers, with Bryce Ruthven snaring the first of his three goals in the third minute.

It proved the only goal in the first half but Ruthven struck in the 48th and 66th minutes to propel his team to a 3-0 lead. Jordan Miller and Tristan Fraser rubbed salt into the Miners' wounds before full-time.

The visitors were hampered by two late changes to their line-up. Key front men Tyson Masters (personal reasons) and Ryan Evetts (thigh) were ruled out and replaced by Joey Civello and Warwick Jansen. Meanwhile, Brett Neeve (groin) and Eddie Skien (hamstring) were injured in the contest, which also saw Daniel Scotton receive his fifth yellow card of the season, resulting in a one-week suspension.

While Mundy said his team provided a listless performance, he did credit hard-working Graham Harvey for trying to limit the damage.

But after disappointing results against lowly Bundaberg, QAS and Capricorn, the Miners' finals hopes have evaporated.

They are destined for a tough encounter with second-placed Brisbane Strikers on home soil on Sunday.
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