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

A hearty welcome back to Naenae, whom we hadn't played against in top flight football for a number of years.

This of course creates the issue of not knowing how they play, who was dangerous, and how we could bet them. Coaches problems really. The weather had been horrible all week, but on Saturday Wakefield Park was bathed in sunshine, and still (Yes, you read it - Still!!)

Our guys turned up to play football, and we started the game quite well, with a strong defensive line, hard-working mids, and hungry attackers. I can't say we played great flowing football for 90 minutes though, as the game resembled more of a tennis match at times.

This is nearly always the case in games where the opposition are determined to match us physically, while trying to "run interference" and stem our attempts to play football. To their credit, Naenae gave their all for the duration, and made some good attempts at scoring, thankfully our defense was up to the task, and we kept our third clean sheet for the season.

Our goals came via Mo Terlau and Kevin Mills and both in the first half. Mo closed down a defender outside the box who tried to dribble around him unsuccessfully, leaving Mo to hammer the ball past a stranded Keeper, and Kevin reacted first to a failed clearance, expertly lobbing the ball into an open goal over a crowd of players lined up on the edge of the box.

The second half got scrappy, and neither team created golden scoring opportunities, the game ending as it did at halftime, 2-0 Island Bay. Stop Out also won their match 2-0 against Lower Hutt, which means we're still second on Goal Difference.

We look forward to this Saturday, where we welcome Miramar's first team in a Chatham Cup tie.

Go Sharks!

Labels: home, naenae, premier, won