Recap
The first fixture of Round 9 saw fourth face off against third as Ashburton looked to close the six point gap on Hume. Ubeyde Cicek got the ball rolling for the Black Army has he finished from the left side past the desperate hand of Omid Azami. Mehran Shafiei hit back for Ashburton when rifled an effort from outside the area into the top left corner. In a close game of few chances, Hume piled on the pressure to close out the first half. Ashburton’s shot stopper, Omid Azami was equal to the task, however, as he made a string of fine reaction saves to keep the score locked at 1-1 at the break.
The second half was a more open affair as both teams attempted to step it up in search of a pivotal goal. Hume would be regretting not taking their first half chances as a period of Ashburton pressure eventually resulted in a goal. Ashburton would take the ball down the left before switching it to Behrad Behzadpour who arrived at the back post to slam the ball home. The game remained at 2-1 for a significant period of the half, but eventually Ashburton would strike again, as Hamed Khademi was allowed too much space just outside the area, and he powered his shot past Frano Saric in goal. Hume looked to the fifth man tactic to try and get back into the game but it was to no avail as Shafiei won the ball in the middle of the court and chipped the ball over the retreating Hume defence and in. Hume hit back through a Mirko Djermanovic strike from range top peg the lead back to two, but it was too little to late as Ashburton added two more late goals through Shafiei and captain Iraj Hani to round out a convincing win.
Man of the Match: Omid Azami (Ashburton FC)