Island Bay United AFC

Saturday's game against Naenae was as disappointing as being I.D'd in a bar at 30 years old, only to find you left your Driver's license in the car.

The game was moved from Naenae 1 (which looked like it had been subject to an archaeological dig, and then refilled with earth) to Naenae 2, which was at least green.

Naenae could have taken the lead within ten seconds (yes, seconds) of kickoff, as a hopeful punt forward from the kickoff, held up on the soggy ground for their striker to run onto to, however his final touch saw the ball sail away off target.

We settled down into a rhythm (somewhat) and played some really great football in places. Mostly though, the final touch was letting us down, and our desire to play flick and backheel stuff was almost always cut out by the determined Naenae players.

A flash move down our left flank was flicked on by a near death Ian Paterson, and missed by my marker as he tried to make contact before the ball got to me. With a nice touch (for a change) I was slightly out from the box with the ball neatly positioned in front of me and no Naenae players nearby. A hard, low drive saw the ball curl into the net and give us the lead around the 10 minute mark.

Naenae were only really dangerous when the ball made it to their Striker, who caused us problems with his great touch. We had numerous shots and corners which we couldn't put away, not to mention two great one-on-ones from Lucci and Ian, before we had stopped for half-time.

The soggy ground was making us tired, and our midfield were having to cover a lot of ground in order to close down a resilient Naenae team. I'm sure that the dismal prospect of relegated in their first Premier year was motivating them to play for every ball, and why not!

The second half was more of the same. Scores of shots at goal, mostly on target as well, were repelled by the Naenae Keeper, who was having such a great game that he was even holding onto strikes which I've seen Premier League Keepers have no chance over, so I'm glad he was their man of the match. In Particular, a volley by Jody could not have missed the top left hand corner, but the keeper didn't just reach it and parry it around the post, no, he caught it!

We never look comfortable with a one goal lead, and with good reason. In the 83rd minute, a hopeful ball and the close proximity of Attackers put Musso under pressure at the back, and as he headed the ball back to Dave in goal, he hadn't seen that Dave had initially come for the ball and then thought better of it, only to watch the ball lobbing over his head and into the net, despite getting a hand to it.

The last minutes saw us push the ball forward as fast as possible, and a great run in to the box by Jody looked like it would give us the lead back, but unfortunately he shot wide (real wide huh Jody? :P) and with it our chance of regaining the lead (albeit momentarily).

The rest of the weekends results meant that 10 points still separate the top 6 spots, but with only got two games left to close a four point gap on Tawa, who also have a game in hand, you could say it's going to be tough. Another way to look at it might be "We're up "insert appropriate expletive" creek without a paddle."

This weekend, Miramar have finally donated enough to Capital Football's coffers for them to be granted a Sunday game, on Miramar Park. Thanks must apparantly go to their first side playing Chatham Cup on Saturday at Home, and their Women's team playing at Home on Sunday as well. Oh well, we're used to sh*t pitches anyway, and Island Bay will play on, despite our teams staunch religious "No Play on the Lord's day" views.

Shark Attack!

Labels: away, drew, naenae, premier

Saturday's game against Upper Hutt was so important to both teams with only a win being good enough for us to keep the pressure up against Tawa. We were told that as players we were under no pressure to win, only not to lose, but I believe pressure can be a good thing. It can create moments of sheer brilliance, and focus some normally unruly individuals into reaching new heights.

We entered the match in what has become typical Island Bay fashion. Players out through injury, suspension and vacation had some of the team re-introducing themselves to one another during the pre-match warm up. Fortunately, the "Oi, You over there" calls I had half expected as a result didn't occur, and we meshed as a unit almost from the first whistle.

We expected Wayne Rooker to be Upper Hutt's distributor, and for him to provide plenty of hopeful balls over the heads of our defense for the skillful and quick wingers in Andy LeProu and Troy Burling to run onto, and he didn't disappoint, but thankfully, we were positionally sound and managed to react well enough to repel most of these attacks before they got out of control. Iain MacIntyre had left Shark Park to join Upper Hutt pre-season, and was given the task of target-man for them, dropping the ball back to their midfield to run onto. This provided us with some problems in defense, but our Midfield eventually dropped slightly to slow down the mobility in front of our back line.

At the other end, we were creative and had Upper Hutt scrambling in cover defense until a fantastic through ball was chipped in behind their back line (I'm only saying that 'cos it was from me) which Kevin Mills chugged (he's the engine room don't you know?) onto before the Keeper and 2 of their players woke up, and then he managed a delicate chip into the goal from an acute angle, giving us the lead.

A few minutes later, and Luciano latched onto another through ball. He beat a player only to seemingly push the ball too far in front of him and just as it looked like the next defender would clear comfortably, the notorious Wakefield Park bobble caught the ball, and the player missed it completely, leaving Lucci an easy (for him) smash past the stranded Keeper, giving us a fantastic 2 goal cushion.

Upper Hutt continued to fight us for everything, and Dave Plowright made an outstanding point blank save to deny one of their players standing six yards out, who chested a cross down nicely before volleying a cracker toward goal. We were saved again moments later, when an Andy Le Prou run breached our defense, only to have "the Bobble" skip the ball over his foot at the last moment as he went to shoot from only a few yards out.

It was one of those games where you wish half time wasn't going to happen, as momentum can shift after a rest, a drink and a few stern words. But, as sure as a Ref can't please everyone anytime, half time arrived.

The second half was tough going. The shocking, unrolled ground had taken it's toll on both teams in the first half, and the fouls were starting to increase.

Upper Hutt made an early sub up front, bringing on their 6 foot 6 inch import to mix it up. We (at the back) didn't react to the change fast enough, and struggled for awhile as he flicked the ball on constantly to other players running through in contrast to Iain MacIntyre's style.

We were still attacking the other end though, and I'm sorry to say I mis-directed an open header off a corner skyward over the bar, when it would have been easier to take the score to a potentially game killing 3-0.

The new striker was pretty grabby, and managed to con the ref into believing Musso had pushed him just outside the box (I could believe this might have happened, had there not been 100 kilos between the 2 players). Matt Bennett stood up to take it, and as all of their tall timber lined up on the far post, he curled his shot around the outside of the wall. Dave pushed it onto the post but it rebounded back onto the line, where Steve Davey could only help it into the roof of the net. Naturally this gave Upper Hutt some new determination to get something from the game.

We were guilty of giving away far too much possession when we had the ball, and Upper Hutt were forcing us into last minute tackles and putting our bodies on the line. Yet another Upper Hutt set piece led to the ball being bounced around in our box only to watch the ball sail from out wide over Dave's head where Andy Le Prou was waiting to force it in from a yard, levelling the scores, and making us wish we had more goals in hand.

It was all over soon after though, after some clinical passing from our players saw a ball cut through into space, and Dave Rutherford made no mistake from a tough angle, tucking the ball around their keeper as 3 Upper Hutt Players tried to rein him in. You could see the despair in the Upper Hutt Players faces straight away.

With a few minutes left, they pushed 4 up front to attempt another come back, but this meant that they had virtually no distribution, and we mopped up most of their attacks with little further problems.

Another 3 points for Island Bay, and our 4th win in a row means we are now sitting alone in 2nd place. Unfortunately, Tawa haven't yet succumbed to the pressure of being on top of a league which is still so close, beating Stop Out 4-1 to remain on top, in front by 2 points, AND with a game in hand!

This weekend we are away to Naenae, and as normal, it's another must win match for both teams involved, as we look to continue pressuring Tawa for the Trophy, and Naenae look to stay in Capital Premier next year.

Shark Attack!

Labels: home, premier, upper hutt, won

Apologies for not getting this report out sooner, but it was difficult to get the events of Saturdays game clear.

It was a beautiful day at Weka Park and the ground was also perfect. Something we definitely aren't used to enjoying.

It's fair to say that we began the game in dis-array. Our midfield was pushing up too high too often, and the bounce of the ball wasn't going our way, allowing them to pick up loose balls in the vacant gaps and pressure our defense.

We got a penalty, somehow, and as normal Richard Steel made no mistake. Minutes later a foul by us led to a freekick, which was taken in a new style, on the bounce. A perfect ball out wide gave their winger some time to line up, and beat, his man. As our defense scrambled to cover, the guy delivered a pin point pass to an unmarked attacker, calmly slotting the ball past our keeper to square the game up.

Much frivality and laughter ensued for the rest of the half, with numerous fouls, insults and curious decisions keeping both teams intrigued.

The second half carried on in much the same vein, until a superb cross was met by Steve Davey, who controlled the ball AND beat his player with his first touch, before slotting the ball into the corner of the goal, giving us the go ahead goal.

Kapiti were in no mood to lose points, and fought tooth and nail to get back into the game, while we pushed to kill the game off with a third goal.

Scott was sent off after a mistimed header hit a Kapiti player instead, so we played on with ten men. Minutes later, when their tall timber at the back elbowed Jamie Milne's nose open, we were reduced to nine.

Thankfully, before we ran out of players, David Rutherford had heroically headed the ball over their keeper and into the corner of the goal, after just getting back onto his feet from a prior horrendous challenge aimed at his head.

Eventually, time ran out and we had won, but it was not a pretty match, nor was it an example of how we want to play. Kudos to all of our players for sticking to their tasks for the whole 90 minutes, even though it wasn't panning out according to plan.

Another 3 points puts more pressure on the top teams, and hopefully we'll win this weeks home game against Upper Hutt, widening the gap between us and some other teams.

Shark Attack!

Labels: away, kapiti, premier, won