Island Bay United AFC

While the mens first team's home form has been outstanding, winning all four of our Wakefield Park encounters, and scoring at least three in each game so far, our results on the road have been less than glorious, drawing two and losing one coming into the game against Upper Hutt.

Winning away today was going to be tough though, with Upper Hutt surely looking for revenge after we knocked them out of the Chatham Cup two weeks prior. A five car pile up on the motorway was not a good start, and most of our team were late getting to the ground, let alone the strip, which turned up with 15 minutes to go before kickoff. Once again, Harcourt Park was a groomed and amazing surface to play on (Thanks very much to the Grounds Staff), and it was a beautiful day to play good football.

Unfortunately we didn't start well, and let Upper Hutt run the midfield, spread the ball wide and attack our defence from all over the park. We seemed satisfied to let them do this, and it wasn't until their striker managed to run from wide on halfway, all the way into our box and around Shaan before passing the ball into the net from six yards that we realised this wasn't the way to play.

From the restart we got into the game, pushing players forward of the ball and penetrating through gaps in their backline. We didn't create many golden opportunities in the first half though, and the score remained 1-0 to Upper Hutt going into the break.

The second half was a complete turn around, with our Midfielders and Frontmen shredding the Upper Hutt defense at every turn, Hicham finally finishing off well after the ball was poorly cleared and put back into the danger area. Upper Hutt had to settle for counter attacking, and while they did create several tense moments at the back, we were unfazed and still pushing for a winner when the ref blew up full time.

Final score was 1-1, meaning another draw on the road, 3 points from a possible 12, and left us wondering what we have to do to get a win away from Shark Park.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, drew, premier, upper hutt