Old Boys 2 at the little big horn....

However from the kickoff Pukekohe took the game to Mangere and the midfield of Dave, Steve, Pete and Steve were knocking the ball about well. Steve and Peter gave the team plenty of width whilst up front Ants and Robbie were giving the defence a torrid time. Robbie just cleared the bar with a rasping effort from the 18 yard line and twice Ants was denied by a fine save from the Mangere keeper although his tactic of wrapping himself round Ants legs NRL style to prevent him getting to the rebound was not one I had seen before.

At the other end the back four of TD, Gavin, Liam and Mike were restricting the pacy front two of Mangere to shooting from 25 yards which either threatened the cars behind the goal or else Dolly dealt with comfortably. Towards the latter stages of the half Pukekohe went close on several occasions –Wrighty fired just over, Pete hit the side netting and Steve also fired narrowly over after a lovely through ball from Craig who was now dominating their midfield pair.

Right on half time Mangere had their best chance of the game when a good through ball put their striker clear but Dolly pulled off a smart one handed save low down to his left to keep matters even. The half time whistle goes and we troop off to find some shade and rehydrate. TD dropped out to ref the second half.

The second half opened in the same vein with Pukekohe bossing midfield but not managing to put the chances away. One fantastic free kick from Gavin found no fewer than 5 of the Pukekohe team clear of the back four. They were lined up like the front line on a foosball table and indeed had the same agility / mobility as one by one they contrived to miss the ball before Pete headed wide at the back post. After the game excuses ranged from Rob’s “the sun was in my eyes” to Craig’s “My hair was in my eyes”. On the hour mark the deadlock was broken as the Mangere centre-forward got a stroke of luck as firstly during a challenge from Gavin the ball broke free for him and then as Dolly came out to challenge, the ball once more broke kindly for him and he knocked into the empty net despite Wrighty’s attempt to get back to the line.

Pukekohe now stepped up their efforts for an equaliser, Gavin took a well earned breather having run himself into the ground under a blazing sun that you would never see in Scotland, Nathan replaced Ants up front who had also run himself ragged and had gone close on several occasions. We always looked dangerous from set pieces as the Mangere keeper feared crosses more than Dracula and from a corner Wrighty dropped a perfect ball into the six yard box where Nathan out jumped the keeper to head in.

The game was now becoming very open and end to end as the conditions took their toll on both sets of midfield. Steve had lots of space wide out on the right and Mike constantly overlapped looking for an opening. Crisp passing from Wrighty, Craig, Andy and Mike put Rob through on their keeper, as they reached the ball together Rob tumbled theatrically but TD waved away the penalty claims and gave him nothing, although on the sidelines Andy Davey, Fabs and Fin gave him 5.8, 5.9, 5.8 for artistic impression.
Mangere once again took the lead with a well worked goal as a lovely ball down the line saw their speedy right winger burst into the box, as Liam came across to cover he squared the ball to the unmarked centre forward who smashed it past a helpless Dolly.

2 – 1 down with 10 minutes to go but far from dropping their heads Pukekohe poured forward for a second equaliser. The back four became a back two of Liam and Coxy and as Coxy put it afterwards “Now I know how Custer felt at the Little Big Horn”.

We were a constant threat going forward and playing really good football, good passing and running brought half chances for Pete and Rob and a delightful move involving virtually every player in the team and over 20 passes ended in Rob getting half a yard on his marker and smashing it left footed into the net, although the Mangere keeper did well to get a hand to it he couldn’t keep it out.

2 -2 and five minutes to go, surely we would now settle for the draw? No was the reply as once more we poured forward looking for the winner and whilst we had one or two scares at the back we looked the more likely to score. With a couple of minutes to go we got an opportunity as we gained a free kick 25 yards out. Could Wrighty repeat his top corner heroics of 2 weeks ago? Unfortunately this time his effort just cleared the bar - - and the cars behind the goal - - and the car park - - and the clubhouse - - Reports on t’interweb the next day of 2 Russian cosmonauts seeing a football shoot past the Soyuz space station and it was still rising. Ah well better luck next time Wrighty. Then in the final minute Mangere broke and with their centre-forward lining up to shoot, Coxy put his body on the line to tackle and block the goal bound shot.

The final whistle goes and is greeted by a mixture of relief and disappointment amongst our team. Half the team have run themselves to a standstill and are relieved whilst the other half wanted to carry on pressing for the winner.

All in all an excellent performance, coming from behind twice against the unbeaten league leaders and some of the football from Pukekohe was a joy to watch. I swear some of the Mangere supporters were doing a Samba down the touchline in the second half as our football was so Brazilian like in its quality. The game was competitive but played in the right spirits and a big thank you to Mangere for their hospitality, to TD for refereeing and to Old boys 1 for helping us out.

Player of the day went to Mike Thomas who never stopped running from first whistle to last and was a constant threat every time he got the ball.

Next game – 1.00pmko home to Western Springs.