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

Up 1-0 within 2 minutes, only to be 2-1 down at half-time and absolutely thrashed 8-3 at the end of 90 minutes by a waterside team desperate to stay up, and who's commitment to that task, coupled with some great touches constantly overpowered our midfield and defense and led to some great goals (for them).

It was a sad way to farewell Petero from NZ football in '08, but the coaches, club and particularly the players who played alongside him, wish him all the best for the future and feel privileged to have been able to play alongside him during his short time here.

We hope that the few people who made Petero's life in NZ extremely difficult do not linger in his memory too long and are quickly replaced with all the good reasons why the rest of us stay in the country and also play our football in NZ: good friends, good living standards, and a guaranteed right to be kept free from persecution, entrapment and extortion.

On Saturday we play Upper Hutt in our last home game of the season, where we'll look to get some dignity back and make up for our last HORRIBLE performance.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, karori, lost, notices, premier

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

Last Saturday we faced Kapiti United, and found that the 1 hour trip away had been reduced to a trip to Whitby as Kapiti Council had closed all their grounds.

Despite both teams essentially having an away game, we knew from our last encounter with them that it would be a hard fought game played for the full 90 minutes. Injuries and Ground closures had disrupted our preparation during the week, but we were determined to put this past us and keep to our winning ways.

We did not start well though, and the first half belonged to Kapiti who put pressure on us at the back by pumping high balls forward which were lost in the sun until the last minute. Their striker proved to be extremely dangerous, hitting the crossbar, and forcing Dave P to make some fantastic saves to keep the sheet clean.

We weren't creating much, but one excursion forward saw Benn Florence slot one home against the run of play, bringing us into halftime 1-0 up and very relieved to get into the break ahead.

Calm heads were going to be needed to get the three points, and in the second half Kapiti pushed us all to the limits, sending many players forward and pressuring us for every inch of space around the park when we had the ball. They hit the post, sent a few wide, and did everything except score.

The Kapiti faithful made for an interesting and noisy sideline, egging their team on at every opportunity, but unfortunately perhaps they pushed too hard, getting one of their players so worked up that he was given a straight red for molesting our Keeper, and that in turn relieved some of the pressure on our back line.

Near full time, one of our fast counter attacks finally paid off, when Petero ran 80 metres out of our defense to receive a good ball, smash a great shot which the keeper could only parry and Zac buried it from one yard to end the game 2-0.

Full respect to Kapiti United who forced us to battle for each of the 90 minutes on the park, and kudos to our guys, who put in a gutsy performance and proved that we can still win games when our brand of football might not be flowing freely as we'd like.

This weekend sees us hosting Wairarapa in what could decide how the season will go for both teams. They've handed us our only loss of the season so far, and Island Bay will be looking to set the record straight.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, kapiti, premier, won

The start of the second round meant we played Lower Hutt out at Fraser Park, in what we hoped was going to be a continuation of our winning ways and the start of us winning away from home, which we had failed to do in the first round, coming away with three draws and a loss.

We were a little unstable to begin with, the ball wasn't sitting right, the passes weren't flowing and we didn't seem to have much spring in our steps, but that all changed when we started putting interlinking passes together in dangerous areas, overpowering the Lower Hutt defence and getting in behind, around and through them at almost every opportunity.

The First half romp was started by Benn sliding the ball past the stalled keeper, then Hicham scored twice (once from the Spot) Zac scored again with his head, and then Benn got his brace before the 45 minutes was up. Lower Hutt did score through a corner when a Lower Hutt player "helped" the ball on towards the far post using Maradona's famous "Hand of god" technique for an unmarked player to head home, but in reality we had them dead and buried at the half time whistle.

The referee's disappeared for a quick tea break, only to come back after half an hour (so we can assume they had scones aswell) and restarted the match. Lower Hutt's frustration was showing more and more, with tackles becoming more focused on players than the ball, and as is always the case with being up by lots of goals at half time, the whole Island Bay team decided to play as individuals and get themselves on the score sheet aswell. Naturally neither of this was good for our football, and our game degraded dramatically.

So dramatically in fact that Lower Hutt won the second half 1-0, one of their players finally finishing off after we'de made two or three poor clearance attempts inside our box.

Although our second half performance was poor, and lacked any enthusiam or passion whatsoever, our first half performance was great. We got our first win away from home, and as Tawa were turned over by Upper Hutt 2-1, we now sit perched on top of the table with 21 points from a possible 30 [though Tawa 19 and Wairarapa 18 have a game in hand each].

This weekend we play Marist at home where we'll look to improve on our 1-1 draw with them in the last round, and keep our noses in front at the top of the league ladder.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, lower hutt, premier, won

Island Bay's Chatham Cup hopes were going to be tough to realise after drawing Western Suburbs away [2006 Chatham Cup Winners, 2007 Chatham Cup Runners Up and 2007 Central League Winners] and were only made tougher by the torrential rain and water logged pitch.

Despite the draw, the weather and the pitch, it was business as usual in the changing rooms, and the squad were brimming with confidence. We started off a lot better than our Upper Hutt encounter, but the pitch conditions turned the game into a comedy with players unable to kick the ball out of the water, overrunning it, sliding in from 10 metres etc. Wests scored in the first ten minutes, tucking the ball inside the near post with Shaan only able deflect the shot off his legs, after a few comical clearance attempts by the Island Bay defense. They scored again when a through ball, which was easily covered, stopped dead on the penalty spot, the Wests player stopped with it but we didn't and he had a wide open goal to tuck the ball into.

Despite this, Island Bay maintained good possession, and played quality football in extremely difficult conditions. We couldn't create enough goal bound chances though, Hicham's torpedo like ground hugging free kick coming close and one cleared off the line after the water stopped it dead [Did I see a hand in there?].

Even though Wests were leading, the atmosphere in the changing rooms at half time was buoyant, everyone believed that we could score twice in 45 minutes and force extra time. This was not to be though, with Wests scoring twice [in much the same comical fashion as the first two] within five minutes of the restart to put the match beyond doubt.

To our credit we played amazing football for the full 90 minutes, and had we not been playing on a waterlogged ground which favoured the amazing clinical finishing of the Central league sides strike force, the result would surely have been closer.

This week we play Western Suburbs again, although their second team [and on Wakefield Park] who maybe be showing signs of coming to life, but hopefully we'll be looking for revenge.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, chatham cup, lost, premier, western suburbs

While the mens first team's home form has been outstanding, winning all four of our Wakefield Park encounters, and scoring at least three in each game so far, our results on the road have been less than glorious, drawing two and losing one coming into the game against Upper Hutt.

Winning away today was going to be tough though, with Upper Hutt surely looking for revenge after we knocked them out of the Chatham Cup two weeks prior. A five car pile up on the motorway was not a good start, and most of our team were late getting to the ground, let alone the strip, which turned up with 15 minutes to go before kickoff. Once again, Harcourt Park was a groomed and amazing surface to play on (Thanks very much to the Grounds Staff), and it was a beautiful day to play good football.

Unfortunately we didn't start well, and let Upper Hutt run the midfield, spread the ball wide and attack our defence from all over the park. We seemed satisfied to let them do this, and it wasn't until their striker managed to run from wide on halfway, all the way into our box and around Shaan before passing the ball into the net from six yards that we realised this wasn't the way to play.

From the restart we got into the game, pushing players forward of the ball and penetrating through gaps in their backline. We didn't create many golden opportunities in the first half though, and the score remained 1-0 to Upper Hutt going into the break.

The second half was a complete turn around, with our Midfielders and Frontmen shredding the Upper Hutt defense at every turn, Hicham finally finishing off well after the ball was poorly cleared and put back into the danger area. Upper Hutt had to settle for counter attacking, and while they did create several tense moments at the back, we were unfazed and still pushing for a winner when the ref blew up full time.

Final score was 1-1, meaning another draw on the road, 3 points from a possible 12, and left us wondering what we have to do to get a win away from Shark Park.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, drew, premier, upper hutt

On Saturday Island Bay played our first Chatham Cup tie against an Upper Hutt team who had proven problematic to us over previous seasons. Upper Hutt had also beaten Wairarapa United the week before.

Chatham Cup matches are a bonus for us as the primary focus is to win the league this year, but with last weeks win against a very good Tawa team and an emphasis on enjoying our football in the lead up to this game, the guys turned up noticeably relaxed. Sometimes taking this attitude has leaded to lethargy on the park, but it wasn't to be the case this time, and we quickly imposed ourselves on the game. Playing forwards, we seemed to have the run of the midfield in particular, with Upper Hutt failing to pick us up as we came through.

Our first goals came quickly with Petero playing Nate through with a great ball for a simple tap in finish. The second goal came shortly after with Petero this time playing a one two to put himself in front of goal and finishing in solid fashion. Upper Hutt looked a bit shell shocked, but held their heads and tried to get back into the game. Just before half time they were rewarded, after learning from our approach towards goal, playing a nice one two of their own to put a player through one on one with Shaan and getting themselves back into the game with the score 2-1 at half time.

Island Bay looked by far the better team, but it's points on the board that matter and so it was with concern when half way through the second half a hard tackle resulted in a penalty being awarded, and our Captain being sent off for asking one question too many of the referee. However, Shaan's pre shot dance on the goal line completely put the penalty taker off and the poor shot was well saved.

And so we had survived the immediate danger but were now down to 10 men with about 25 minutes to play. We re-shaped our lineup to compensate, with Steve becoming the lone striker (obviously he hadn't done enough running in the midfield), Lai and Zac dropping into midfield and looking to get forward in support when possible, and Petero playing in central defence.

With about 10 to go Nate played a ball into the Upper Hutt penalty area to Steve, who turned it back to find Lai on the penalty spot. Lai engaged in a quick bit of line dancing with the ball and Upper Hutt defenders then tucked it away in the corner to put the game beyond doubt.

The last few minutes then become a mere formality, Island Bay winning
3-1 and progressing to the next round, against Western Suburbs at 2:00 PM on Queens Birthday Monday on Endeavour Park.

This week we host Waterside Karori at Wakefield Park, as we fight over top spot on the league table.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, chatham cup, premier, upper hutt, won

On Saturday Island Bay Capital Premier played Miramar, who had recently been thumped by both Tawa and Wairarapa. It was clear early on that our oppositions confidence had been shaken by the previous weeks experiences and we looked by far the more capable team. Balls flowed easily forward and our backs, playing into a very strong southerly, were easily dismissing their challenges. As a result we inevitably managed to get several chances on goal but failed time and again to convert chances, even one on one, into goals.

As more time went by without us scoring, Miramar definitely grew more confident. To their credit they were well organised and maintained a good shape to repel our attempts at securing the win. In the second half they got 10 players behind the ball on defence playing into the wind and looked to counter attack. Our stronger performances came from our backs and man of the match goal keeper Shaan. Unfortunately their match winning efforts were not converted by our forwards.

Early in the second half frustration lead to changed tactics, leaving only three at the back and putting three up front, to try and break the dead lock and injected fresh legs into the midfield. Though we came close on many occasions to getting the winner it was not going to be our day.

It is frustrating not to have been able to put teams like Miramar and Marist away especially going into the next couple of weeks challenges against Tawa and Waterside Karori who are undoubtedly two of the stronger teams in the competition. But the spirit within the side is very strong, as is the belief that we have a very good side this year. We are looking forward now to our next game, as we can only make amends by making a difference in these upcoming games.

This week sees us return home to take on league leaders Tawa.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, drew, miramar, premier

A hard fought battle resulted in Island Bay's first premier loss of the 08 season.

Island Bay started well, attacking Wairarapa down the flanks, and creating lots of problems, but failing to get clear shots on target. Hicham finished a clinical strike, only to be denied yet again by the assistants flag.

Wairarapa settled down and started attacking, floating balls into Peter Rabo to knock down for their other lightning quick striker to run on to. Rabo scored when the ball was crossed to the edge of the penalty area and Shaan couldn't punch clear, leaving an empty net which the ball bounced into. 1-0 HT.

The second half started with Wairarapa dominating possession in their half, and trying to play the long ball through to their fast strikers. One of their fast breaks opened our defenses up, and I gave away a freekick about 25 yards out. Rabo again stepped up for Wairarapa, lofting the ball over Shaan, and giving them a two goal cushion.

We settled down, changed formation to attack them more, and a nice fast break led to Hicham being brought down in the box. He misheard the ref, didnt wait for the whistle, and put the ball to the right, beating the keeper only be told he'd have to retake it. He did the exact same thing again! On the third attempt he waited for the whistle, and slotted home in exactly the same place as before. 2-1.

Island Bay sent wave after wave of attacks at Wairarapa, but we couldn't find the equalising goal, and time was our enemy, running out before we could even things up.

This week we play Miramar at Centennial Park, and will turn up with our minds focussed on a return to our winning ways.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, lost, premier, wairarapa

Marist won promotion to Capital Premier after coming second in Division 1 last season. They only lost one game while Miramar Rangers [who won Div 1] lost three, the difference proving to be Marist's draws.

Last week they lost to Miramar 3-2, after conceding three goals in the first 10. We knew that they would be looking to record a win in their first Premier game on their new home ground, and would try and play football, rather than long ball, or just beating us with their fists, so we were looking forward to the encounter.

The game started, but we failed to, and for the first 30, it was all Marist, using the wind to peg us in our own half, with their midfielders feeding their striker and wingers lots of good ball. Their goal came from a fast break down the line, a couple of missed offside calls, and an eventual tap in which was made harder by determined tracking from Steve Davey. 1-0 to Marist.

The last 15 minutes of the half would see us wake up slightly, but we conceded offside after offside, and when Hicham smashed the ball into the corner of their net, that was called offside as well. 1-0 HT.

The second half was not a lot better from us, but a reshuffle saw us play an extra man forward, and Steve Davey capitalised on a nice cut back to beat the keeper from close range and level things up at 1-1. Marist had let up from their great first half performance, but still gave us plenty of trouble down the flanks, partially from us handing them too much ball.

1-1 at full time seemed fair at the time given our performance, but upon reflection either team had enough chances to take the 3 points.

This week sees us hosting Kapiti which we'll be targeting to regain our winning ways while playing entertaining football.

Go Sharks!

Labels: away, drew, marist, premier