Island Bay United AFC

A beautiful sunny Sunday on a mostly pristine Endeavour Park invited both Island bay and Western Suburbs to play some great football, rather than the game of Kick Mud that has plagued our football for most of the '08 season.

The game was played end to end for 90 minutes, with both sides enjoying lots of possession and showing some great skills. Island Bay looked very strong for long periods, with our revamped side working hard to create space and support for one another.

West's Central Leaguers showed why they've been brought down to try and keep West's second team in our grade, with Darren Cheriton, Rupert Ryan, Jonathan Rowe, and Jon Harahap and Sam Peters controlling Wests outfield play, while Jake Gleeson in goal consistantly stopped Island Bays goal bound shots, including a spectacular reflex save to deny a certain own goal deflection in the first half.

West's played too much long ball in the first half, fell over the heads of the defenders and left Chemo to comfortably mop up, but they looked dangerous when the ball was played into the space between our Midfield and Defense as the Wests attack dropped deep to pick up the ball and turn with time.

Island Bay played out from the back through MJ, Nate and Milky, with all three combining to play several great one-twos up the field before offloading to Hicham in the middle, or out wide to Lucci and Benn who constantly bet their markers and whipped in some nice crosses.

The second half was more of the same, but eventually Rupert Ryan's work rate and finishing skills paid off after a hopeful lobbed cross wasn't dealt with effectively enough, and he whipped around his marker to slot home from 8 yards despite Chemo getting a good hand to it.

If Wests had after match speeches it would have been hard not to reward their goalie with MOM, even if Rupert did get them all 3 points in the finish, while our MOM went to Oliver Davie, who did a great job defending the speedy Jon Rowe on the right wing while also managing to support our attack for the full 90.

This weekend is the finale of Island Bay's Premier season, playing Upper Hutt at Wakefield Park with a win needed to secure them third place.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, lost, premier, western suburbs