Island Bay United AFC

Well, we did it again - were our own worst enemies in literally GIVING three goals up against previously bottom placed Stokes Valley.

Yes, the ground was crap.
Yes, the referee was, ummm, being heavily assessed (enough said).
But we still should've got past that to post the win. And we didn't.
So back to the bottom of the table for us.

After a good team lunch at La Bella Italia, we arrived at Delaney Park with good time to spare, and in good spirits after a well deserved win the week before.

The team wasn't too disrupted with changes, as the core was kept the same. Matt Hickey had an exam, Paul was out injured, and Milney away after the passing of his father. Our condolences go out to you and your family mate.
Black arm bands on though and time to get focused on the game.

Hamish came in for Matt, Freddie at Left Back for Paul and Luciano, still on his come back, started up front with Jimmy.

Talk was of getting into the same mind space as the week before, understanding the importance of getting a result and the desperation that Stokes Valley would be feeling to stay close to the pack.

And to be fair, we started off well again. We were never really troubled at the back, were dominating the ball in midfield and creating chances up front. It's just a pity we couldn't finish off, as a goal could've worked wonders in getting our tails up and SV heads down.

But the SV 'keeper kept them in the game, and when they got a dodgy and fortuitous own goal we knew we were still in it, to get a result.
SV got a ball in behind our left hand side and Freddie did well to get in between the ball and the man, but a pretty blatant shove in the back pushed him off the ball and as he came back to block the shot, it was cruelly deflected into our net. Very lucky and undeserved so we needed to keep our composure to build our comeback.

We threatened plenty, forcing a lot of corners which resulted in a couple of good saves.
Josh rose nicely for one header, and got well over the ball but unfortunately straight to the 'keeper, then I finally got one goal bound, only for the 'keeper to get a couple of fingers to it and send it out for another corner.
Other shots and crosses towards the danger area were blocked by the desperate SV defence, and we went in to the break down by that one goal.

I'm not sure what happened in that second half, whether we were feeling the effects of the heavy pitch or if SV just got right into it, but for the majority of it, we seemed to be too loose and too slow to second phase ball.

The first 15 wasn't too bad and this is when we equalised, but for the last half an hour SV dominated possession and play as they kept us camped in our defensive half (where the state of the ground was much better than the other half).

Off another attacking corner, a half clearance was squared back in along the ground by Jody. It found Hamish with his back to goal and as he gave it a nice flick back through his legs (or a perfect dummy miss?), it came right to me inside the 6 yard box...a wild prod, with eyes closed, and the ball makes it over the line. You beauty, my first goal for Island Bay and it's brought the scores back level!

As mentioned though, we couldn't seem to push on from the momentum gained and when two mistakes in quick succession were punished by goals we just had too far to climb.

A runaway SV player had his first shot brilliantly parried by Adam in goal, but when the rebound fell to the other striker there was nothing he could do to stop the resulting shot.

And poor old Adam, who had run out of petrol on the motorway on his way out to the game, was left high and dry again, as a mix up on half way left the SV striker bearing down on him as he came out to claim the ball near the edge of his area. As he collected the ball, he slid out of the area and tried to keep the ball in the box, but his momentum carried him too far. He let go, the striker pinched it and squared it for his unmarked mate to finish. Tough luck but maybe we need to tease out the mongrel and dishonesty in you Adam - you're just too honest! ;)

Our final goal came from a nice piece of counterattacking, in what really was the only well worked goal of the game. 15 year old Caleb, who had come on for Jimmy, was released down the left hand side, in acres of space. Once he got down to the box he calmly checked and squared for an unmarked Luciano, who cooly slammed the ball past the 'keeper.

We tried valiantly to claw back another equaliser but SV did well to hold on to the ball and keep us out.

Thankfully we're back at home this week and in the never ending important games, we have the return match against Brooklyn Northern, who are coming off a 1-1 draw against top placed Olympic and beat us 4-2 in the first round.

They're only 1 point ahead of us though, so nothing to fear and plenty on the line...

Nick

Labels: away, capital 1, loss, stokes valley