Island Bay United AFC

If I'd written this on Saturday evening it would have been full of references to Refereeing, Licenses found in Weetbix Boxes, Underhand Tactics, ecetera, so we can all be thankful that I took a step back and waited for the aftertaste to come through.

It took a while.....

Saturday's return leg against Karori began like it went on, with hard tackles, some fouls and some not, and numerous off the ball incidents intertwined with periods of good play from both sides.

Dave Plowright had to make one, great one handed save, but otherwise our defense cut most of their promising play out in the first half. At the other end, Lucci crossed some delightful balls, but we didn't seem to be able to meet them once they arrived, and their keeper picked up anything which came too close, including a one-on-one late in the first spell.

The score was locked at 0-0 at halftime, it was obvious that we had a fight on our hands, as both teams wanted to take away the full three points.

The beginning of the second half carried on in the same vein, with both teams hammering away at each other (both physically and mentally). Yet again, this extended to the Dug-outs with Karori's coach carrying on like he was ready to push through a set of saloon doors and start a bar fight. Classic....

A Waterside Karori corner was unable to be punched clear by Dave, possibly due to the "Wharfie Sandwich" which three of their players had him in. Instead the ball dropped 2 yards out from the middle of our goal line, where James Hill had been conveniently waiting for the smack in, breaking the deadlock.

Play carried on in much the same way, with Island Bay looking dangerous on the attack, until the final ball/shot/pass etc. Karori suddenly ran out of puff, at least whenever the ball was out they did.......... Mind you, I would have been slow if we'd been 1-0 up in this sort of game as well, so I can't blame ya fella's.

The linesman finally saw Tahl being fouled by Adam Crump, but unfortunately this time it was for a blatant elbow to Tahl's teeth, which was the final straw for Tahl and resulted in him being shown red as well.

With both teams down to ten men and with us chasing a leveller, the dynamics changed slightly, and Karori were forced to play the counter attack as we tried to pile on pressure against their defense. Fortunately for them, (and you can read their unbiased match report here) when we did get in behind their back four we didn't pressure their goalie with too much, and even a magnificent turn in their box by Musso (nose bleed Musso?) ended in a shot over the bar.

They extended their lead to 2-0 late in the piece after a corner, when Dave could only push an almost unmarked players volley inside the far post, nearly taking Paul's (standing on the post) head off in the process.

As our last home game of the season we're fairly disappointed with the loss but will look to get hold of third spot by beating Miramar this Saturday at Dave Farrington Park, and relying on Stop Out to drop a point in any of their last games.

Shark Attack!

Labels: home, karori, lost, premier

Our Saturday trip away to Karori proved just why Wellington needs Artificial Grounds and fast. Unfortunately, this Karori Park is Wellington's latest pitch, and what a waste of money it's proving to be.

I'm sure it's great during Summer, when Mums and Dads can happily stroll their Prams across the park to the cafe and playground, but it's not much chop when you need a snorkel to kick off and it's only halfway through the season.

I digress....And I suppose I digress because we lost. And, we lost because we aren't a flipping water polo team.

Actually, we lost because while we played some good football in patches, and some great football in others, we made 3 poor choices at the back, and weren't able to penetrate at the front often enough to even get shots on target. Add to that a double line clearance (first by the keeper, and the follow up a point blank header by a defender) in the first half which would have seen us take the lead, and two awesome saves by Karori's keeper which might have seen us draw level, and what does it all equal?

It equals us, still on 15 points, still in fourth place, but letting Karori join Stop Out for first, as they drew with Wests 1-1.

Monday sees us host a resurgent Kapiti team, who, after being on the receiving end of several hidings, (7-0, 8-0 and 8-1 I believe) turned up and unleashed hell on Lower Hutt, pounding them 8-0. We will have to dig deep if we are to get anything out of this long weekend except influenza. Happy birthday Queenie......

In other games Karori play Tawa in the Cup, and Stop Out face Wellington United's top team, meaning that all the teams above us will have a game in hand. Upper Hutt will host Naenae, and Miramar's second team will mirror it's First team, playing Wests, although not in the Cup....

Shark Attack!

Labels: away, karori, lost, premier

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

Another home game on the weekend required another victory for the Premier side as we attempt to climb to the top of the ladder. Karori were joint top of the table, hadn't lost yet in 2008, and have a game in hand aswell, so it was a good time to let our intentions for this season be known. The squad was overflowing with confidence after beating Tawa, and Upper Hutt (Chatham Cup) in previous weeks, and were looking forward to keeping to our winning ways.

We started well in the windy, wet conditions, although perhaps not so great at the back, with a few tense moments as we failed to deal properly with Karori's long floating balls over the back of our defense. Once we'd sorted these out, it was all Island Bay, with Karori's midfield being swamped by Nate, Steve and Petero. Hicham was back from injury, and carving trenches around the Wharfie's defense, taking 20 minutes before scoring a well earned goal, even if it did take a deflection on the way.

We continued to dominate, Karori relying on counter-attacking whenever they could break out of their half. Five minutes before half-time another attack resulted in a corner. Ian fired in a near post cross, which Zac rose up to and rocketed the ball towards goal. The defender on the near post could only head the ball into the top of the net, making it 2-0, and surely requiring a couple of panadol.

Different game, same old Wakefield Park half-time talk. "Third goal will kill 'em off gentlemen!" Karori would have been given a slightly different speech I'm sure, and both teams came out of the dressing rooms fired up.

Karori changed formation to 3-4-3 in an attempt to peg one back and make a game of it, but within 5 minutes Steve Davey had decided the third goal wasn't happening fast enough, so drove one into the top left hand corner from 25 yards, leaving us all gob-smacked, including the stranded Wharfie's keeper.

Karori kept searching for a way back in, and looked to have found one when they were awarded a penalty. Fortunately Shaan gave us some more penalty magic, not only saving the initial kick, but also dealing with the rebound. Karori would score ten minutes later though, bending a freekick around the outside of the wall and in off the post with precision. It was all too little too late though, The Bay has now won all four home games and is sitting in second place, only two points adrift of Tawa.

Interestingly, after SEVEN games, there is only SEVEN points separating the top SEVEN teams. This weekend Tawa face Karori, while we play Upper Hutt, away at Harcourt Park [that'll be twice in two weeks] on Saturday, with a Chatham Cup tie against last years beaten Cup finalists, and Central League Winners, Western Suburbs.

Waterside Karori's Match Report

Go Sharks!

Labels: home, karori, premier, won