Island Bay United AFC

Island Bay's Chatham Cup hopes were going to be tough to realise after drawing Western Suburbs away [2006 Chatham Cup Winners, 2007 Chatham Cup Runners Up and 2007 Central League Winners] and were only made tougher by the torrential rain and water logged pitch.

Despite the draw, the weather and the pitch, it was business as usual in the changing rooms, and the squad were brimming with confidence. We started off a lot better than our Upper Hutt encounter, but the pitch conditions turned the game into a comedy with players unable to kick the ball out of the water, overrunning it, sliding in from 10 metres etc. Wests scored in the first ten minutes, tucking the ball inside the near post with Shaan only able deflect the shot off his legs, after a few comical clearance attempts by the Island Bay defense. They scored again when a through ball, which was easily covered, stopped dead on the penalty spot, the Wests player stopped with it but we didn't and he had a wide open goal to tuck the ball into.

Despite this, Island Bay maintained good possession, and played quality football in extremely difficult conditions. We couldn't create enough goal bound chances though, Hicham's torpedo like ground hugging free kick coming close and one cleared off the line after the water stopped it dead [Did I see a hand in there?].

Even though Wests were leading, the atmosphere in the changing rooms at half time was buoyant, everyone believed that we could score twice in 45 minutes and force extra time. This was not to be though, with Wests scoring twice [in much the same comical fashion as the first two] within five minutes of the restart to put the match beyond doubt.

To our credit we played amazing football for the full 90 minutes, and had we not been playing on a waterlogged ground which favoured the amazing clinical finishing of the Central league sides strike force, the result would surely have been closer.

This week we play Western Suburbs again, although their second team [and on Wakefield Park] who maybe be showing signs of coming to life, but hopefully we'll be looking for revenge.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, chatham cup, lost, premier, western suburbs