Men’s 1st team demonstrate their potential and show their promise….

Sitting in the dugout on Saturday looking at the tremendous support Manurewa brought with them, it felt like they were expecting a walk in the Bledisloe sunshine. However, Manurewa were soon brought down to earth by one of the best 45 minutes of football that our developing side has produced in the Northern League so far. The game plan was to slow the game down, to play to a pace that we wanted and to disrupt as much of the Manurewa ball play as we could. We knew that by sticking to our game plan opportunities would occur and we could build on the opposition’s frustration – and despite being 1.0 down after 13 minutes it worked.

Pukekohe soaked up some early pressure and set about the game plan well, unfortunately, some sloppy defending allowed a free header on goal from a corner after 13 minutes. Heads did not go down, the back four showed great work ethic and the midfield gathered shape. Dave Allan and Andy Hey dealt with all that was thrown at them and Jason Paranihi began to disrupt and boss midfield. Manurewa began to look unsettled and worried. After 25minutes Keegan Saville was played through in on goal by a superb ball from James Wright, only for him to see his shot deflected just wide for a corner. After 30 minutes more pressure from Duncan Moxon and Keegan Saville provided a further corner. On 35 minutes some pressure football By Eddie Bignell created an opening for Jason Paranihi only to see his low drive fly past the post. Just before half time Robbie Leonard saw a goal bound shot blocked.

At half time there was genuine belief that we could get something from the game, our heads and spirit were up and we were clearly frustrating Manurewa. 5 minutes into the second half, however, things went unjustly wrong for us. Manurewa raised their game and put a series of long balls into our penalty area. One cross caused confusion, the ball fell to their striker whose shot was excellently saved by Trent Hirst, the following rebound caught the Manurewa strikers hand dropped to his feet for a close toe-poke into the net. The crowd saw the handball, the dugout yelled and the linesman nodded. After all our hard work we found ourselves unjustly 2.0 down which was hard to recover from and we were hit 5 minutes later as our defence were caught square. However, at 3.0 down there was no giving up. Tireless work by Jason Paranihi and fresh legs picked up the pace. Jason Paranihi had a cracking 25yard drive excellently tipped over by the keeper. Jethro Conway created a bit of space through some neat footwork on the penalty area, only to see his effort straight at the keeper. Brad frost showed pace and skill to cut a lovely ball back into the penalty area that we just couldn’t quite make. Our drive and efforts in search of a goal and some tired legs saw us get caught on the break 5 minutes from the end.

Despite the 4.0 score line, believe me when I say that this was a good performance and we evenly matched Manurewa for long periods of the game. This young first team is getting better and better each game. The spirit and attitude is first class and the players are starting to play with more belief. Once again thank you to all the support and to the players for their discipline and approach to the game. The results will come, keep believing.

Team:- Trent Hirst, Ben Jonhstone, Andy Hey, Josh Wright, Robbie Leonard, Dave Allan, Jason Paranihi, Duncan Moxon, Eddie Bignell (Joseph Morris 63) Keegan Saville Jethro Conway 53), James Wright (Brad Frost 63)

Man of the match: - Jason Paranihi – a commanding and tireless performance in the middle of the park