Island Bay United AFC

Island Bay Premier faced off against Tawa on Saturday, hoping to walk away from Redwood Park with 3 points, edge away from Tawa on the table and in the process apply some much needed pressure on Wairarapa.

Upon arriving at Redwood, we were told the pitch was flooded, the ref had gone to Kura Park to see what that was like, and that Capital Football wanted the game played!! (Tawa had already had 2 whole games postponed which meant the football was just going to have to suffer!) The ref returned, and told us we were on our way to Kura Park as it was much better. Somehow we lost a linesman on the way, so a spectator was given the job of waving a flag around on the sideline, and being overruled for 90 minutes. A contract I'm sure he's still bragging about winning.

The Pitch might have been better that Redwood, but it was still absolutely destroyed within ten minutes of kickoff, with both teams finding it difficult to play any kind of football, and guilty of the occasional late, sliding tackle.

Island Bay looked a little shaky in defense playing against the wind in the first half, for while they coped with Tawa's long balls adequately enough, they struggled to get the ball out of defense and find their own players feet.

At the other end their keeper was giving a man of the match performance, saving a number of shots from our attack, including one which looked to be well over the line. Lucci finally broke the deadlock, slamming a ball into the side netting despite the keepers best efforts to get over to it.

Minutes later Tawa drew level, with a Tawa "Super Sub" scoring a once in a lifetime volley over Dave's head from an acute angle. I'm sure he'll tell his kids (or any one's kids for that matter) about it later on in life and it was good enough that I think he's totally entitled to. Score 1-1 at the break.

Both teams came out after the half looking to get something out of the game. We looked the more attacking of the two sides, and attacked Tawa down the flanks, trying to get the ball away from the middle of the pitch (The Bog). Midway into the the half, a poor clearance from Tawa was headed back down the flank, Lucci turned his man inside out, then delivered a pin point ball to Hicham's Feet. Hicham, with his back to goal, somehow hypnotised his marker into diving out of the way, so he could promptly pivot and slot the ball into the corner.

Again, minutes later, Tawa drew level again when the "Super Sub" had a ball played in between Lee and Petero for him to muscle his way onto and slot home despite an honourable attempt by Dave to keep us in front.

Fearful that if we kept scoring, the final outcome could be 10-10, we decided to just keep coming close to scoring instead, thus ensuring Tawa and the "Super Sub" wouldn't keep scoring come back goals.

The game ended in Wairarapa's favour, a 2-2 draw between 2nd and 3rd place letting them get a further two points out in front (as they downed Upper Hutt 2-0).

This week we play Waterside Karori at their new Whitby Ground (Adventure Park), and here's hoping that the team show the same gritty determination as they did against Tawa, with perhaps a little more concentration and finesse (Ground and Weather permitting)

Side Note: The Ref had a great game.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, drew, premier, tawa