Island Bay United AFC

I'm struggling to come up with any new ways of describing our games. Every week it seems to be Deja Vu.

Good fighting spirit, clear opportunities created, good commitment, mostly solid defence - all resulting in another gut wrenching loss.

We lined up against top of the table Olympic with a very strong team considering all the injuries, suspensions and holidays decimating our first and second team squads.

And after a week off, after being cancelled last week, you could sense the keen-ness in the squad. Our core was maintained, with Josh and MJ lining up in the centre of midfield and Dave Wiggins part of the furniture at the back. Relative newbie Darren slotted in next to Dave with Nick sliding out to the right and Matty W assuming his possy at Left Fullback.
Up front we must've had an average age of about 12, with our 'front 4' consisting of the Hickeys, Freddie Double and Andy K. Adam, as usual, rounded out the team in goal.

Right from the first whistle, we played with intent and our young guns were causing plenty of trouble for the confident Greek defense. They were putting great pressure on the ball and stole a lot of it from careless first touches or plain arrogance on the ball. And our counter attack was working well.

One lightning attack down the left from Matt H resulted in a pinpoint cross to his brother Cam, who despite a Michael Jordan like jump (who said white boys can't jump!) couldn't quite get enough over the ball and his header shaved off a coat of paint from the top of the crossbar.

It was agonisingly close, but also very encouraging.

Most of Olympic's attacks were well snuffed out, either in midfield or from a nice nudge in the back courtesy of Darren or Dave. And when they did get in behind us, either the cross was well cleared or the cover was sufficient to make the tackle.

You could sense Olympic's frustration as we dominated play, and we knew the longer we kept them scoreless the better it would get for us.

Unfortunately, a tinny flick from their winger to their offside striker resulted in a simple one-on-one opportunity which was clinically taken, giving the Greeks a somewhat undeserved lead. (And I don't usually moan about refs decisions after the fact!).

We continued to push in the first half, but just couldn't find the goal. It was good to see everyone muscling up though and one thing we certainly weren't was soft. We went hard into challenges (maybe a little hard sometimes) and were sure to not be bullied out there which was important.

It's just the clinical edge we seem to lack. Final crosses, passes or shots just aren't hitting the mark.

So, after coming out of the break knowing we were still in it, we continued to create chances. Perhaps even more than the first half. Andy was getting plenty of ball, running from the space in behind Cam up front and the other three young'uns continued to run their bollocks off harassing the defence and creating for each other.

We had goal mouth scrambles, precise set pieces, a one-on-one and a (now expected) acrobatic bicycle from Andy, but every time the ball evaded the goal.

Frustrations were also starting to reach boiling point, with challenges becoming reckless and plenty of banter flying around the pitch.

And it all came to a head when Cam received a ball 10 metres into the attacking side of the field. He sharply turned inside, knocking the ball forward, but was well collected as he tried to scoot past. The defender had saved a one-on-one with their rather rotund keeper, but copped a red card for his troubles. The gutting thing for us was time was running out and Olympic had already started to work the 'defend the lead' tactic, only producing attacks on the counter and then they didn't have many numbers forward. The loss of a man only enhanced this tactic, and try as we might we couldn't find the elusive goal.

Another game gone. Another 3 points missed.

There's no doubt we're into the desperation end of the season and being last by 2 points, every week we don't pick up points is going to hurt deeply.

And it's fair to say we have a very tough run in. We have 4 of the top 5 teams left, and the only saving grace from that is that we seem to play our best against the good teams - as long as we can slot a goal!

This week we're against a very stingy Marist, who've conceded only 9 goals this season so if ever there was a test, this week is it.

Labels: away, capital 1, loss, olympic