“Down to earth….”

There were five players remaining from the eleven that started away at Ngaruawahia, a sure sign of the changes that have been made. Furthermore, we were able to field the same starting line up that had earned the victory at Papakura. Again under some “glorious” football conditions (that includes the hail!) both sides set about their task - Ngaruawahia to collect the three points to stay top and Pukekohe to give the league leaders a ‘game’ and to continue the building of the side.

Within the first minute things could have gone very wrong, a corner swung in from the right provided a free header for the visitors, it was a bad miss thankfully. Ngaruawahia quickly settled into a short sharp passing game, but were finding it hard to break through midfield and our central defence. We were starting to build and on 20 minutes Duncan Moxon let fly with a strong effort collected well by the keeper. The visitors used some clever movement up front to allow space on the flanks and after 23 minutes we were 1.0 down. 3 minutes later another well worked move opened our flanks and their chance was clinically taken. Heads could have gone down after conceding two quick goals, but they didn’t. We held our shape, Jason Paranihi (once again) began to dominate midfield superbly and some calm, technical ball control in very testing conditions (once again) from Dave Allan settled us down. On 30 minutes Jason picked up the ball just inside the visitors half, created some space and then let fly with 25yard shot. The ball looked like it was going over the bar, but held up in the wind and dipped under. At 2.1 down we started to believe that we could claw ourselves back into the game. The first half finished well for the Maroons. Joseph Morris saw his left footed 20 yard drive fly past the left upright and our shape and game plan started to frustrate the visitors who collected two yellow cards.

Half time and 2.1 down – all was far from over and we had finished the half stronger. There was belief and confidence in the dressing room and the first 15 minutes saw the Maroons put the visitors on the back foot. Robbie Leonard stepped well in midfield and saw two well timed passes just cut out by their defence. Jethro Conway had a right footed half volley on target and Jason saw a 20 yard low drive just go wide. Things were looking bright, until Ngaruawahia stepped up their game. Their movement upfront caused problems again and a well timed through ball was placed well for 3.1 up. Two minutes later a similar move saw us 4.1 down. Those two quick goals were hard to recover from and despite fighting well for the last 10 minutes we conceded two more. The final minute of the game brought a wonderful move to watch. The ball was won expertly by Ben Johnstone at right back, he played the ball into Dave Allan who held off three players and chipped the ball into the path of the on running Ben. Ben clipped the ball towards the right hand side of the penalty area where a sublime flick from Jethro sent the ball to an on-coming Robbie. His acrobatic right footed mid air side volley hit the ground and into the keeper’s arms. It would have been something special had it come off.

As I said at the beginning of the report Pukekohe can take heart that for a good 60 minutes they were as good as the league leaders. After the match the visitors commented that for the first period of the second half there was really nothing to distinguish between the sides. However, all credit to Ngaruawahia for a fair game and some deserved, very clinical, finishing. You deserve to be league leaders if you convert 75% of your chances (6 goals from 8 shots on target).

Once again a huge thank you to all the support for the teams, to those who didn’t get a game and to those who helped with pre and post match. Time to reflect and focus on Mangere Utd.

The team: - Trent Hirst, Ben Johnstone, Dave Allan, Andy Hey, James Wright, Jason Paranihi (Captain), Duncan Moxon (Robbie Leonard, 45), Brad Frost, Joseph Morris (Josh Wright, 70), Keegan Saville (Eddie Bignell, 82), Jethro Conway.

Subs not used: Jamie Clark, Chris Mahoney


Man of the Match: - Robbie Leonard A very strong midfield performance, intelligent and mature play. Hard luck your goal didn’t come off.