Eastern Suburbs 1 Over 35's 2

On Saturday we travelled to Eastern Suburbs for our last game of the season. 3 points was needed to keep us in contention for winning the division, though the outcome will be determined by Western Springs, who are 6 points behind with 2 games to play. All we could do was take 3 points and make it as hard for Springs as we possibly can.

Well it was a lovely Spring day at Madills Farm and into the last 90 minutes of the season. Puke started well and after a couple of early chances missed by Suburbs, a Big John Mclaughlan clearance found Andy Davey who in turn found Jonny “Team mate” Waller and with a low toe poke, slotted it into the bottom left-hand corner, 1- 0 Puke and a great start.

Next the ball was picked up in defence by Mark Harvey and a great through-ball to Russell Evans found his midfield partner Davy Barnard who let one rip from 35 metres and a magnificent save from the Suburbs keeper managed to just turn it over the bar, resulting in a Puke corner.

Judging by the opposing comments, Suburbs believed they could get something out of this and stated that we were only “picking up the crumbs” but unfortunately there were enough crumbs for a full biscuit.

According to some, the first half-hour we played some of our best football of the season, then another thunderbolt from Davey Barnard caught the keeper off his line, who managed to get another finger-tip onto it, the ball ricocheted off the bar to be narrowly smashed over from close-range, unlucky lads.

Another huge clearance from John Mclaughlin, found Russell Evans who slotted a lovely pass through to Graham who in-turn slid a wonderfully weighted pass through to me on the edge of the area and hit it, on the turn, low to the bottom corner, 2 – 0 Puke.

At this point Suburbs were out of it and this is where we needed to impose our dominance, but decided it was a better idea to try to play neat 1-2’s and the like on the edge of our own penalty area and gifted Suburbs a golden opportunity which they took with both hands, they basically were queuing up to score, 2-1 Puke.

Half-time team-talk was to keep it going, we were the better side, so heads up and enjoy the last 45 minutes of the season.

Back into it, and Suburbs took points of a top side last week and wanted more from the division leaders. They started strongly and created the early opportunities, but safe from some great defending by Mark Harvey and inspirational goal keeping from Marty Round kept them at bay.

We struggled a little the 2^nd half, giving the ball away in vital areas, then with an injury to key defender Mark Harvey had to have a bit of a re-shuffle, which didn’t help. We didn’t create many chances, but defended quite superbly to keep them out. Marty Mercer created our best opportunity when he went on a bit of a run, turned inside two defenders, but the ball bobbled as he hit it and scuffed his shot over the bar. So no goals 2^nd half and that’s how our season finished.

We are currently top, 6 points ahead so will have to wait for Western Springs to play there 2 games in hand, to determine if we win the division or not, but has been a great determined effort all round.

Player of the day today, was between some great goal-keeping from Marty Round and staunch defending from John Mclaughlan and this week goes to John. Some great challenges in that 2^nd half to keep us in touch, well done, mate. 

POD: John McLaughlan

Goals: Jon Waller 2

Goal Scorers to date: Jon Waller 20, Andy Davey 12, Robbie Leonard 6, Pete Clark 2, Dave Bernard 2, Marty Mercer 2, Graham Spinks 1, John Mclaughlan 1, and Nick Rowe 1. 

There will be a training run 6pm on a Thurs night for anyone interested and the Over 35 Tournament is on Sat 24^th September.