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Dave Wadeley posted on September 07, 2008 14:01
For one reason or another a few players were missing from the line-up this week and come kick-off time we were only able to take to the field with 10 men. Not a good proposition against a team which hadn’t lost a game since 21st June. Sure enough the opening exchange started badly with a penalty claim denied and three quick goals against us (two of which looked suspiciously offside – moral of the story, don’t try playing the offside trap when you don’t have an official referee or linesmen). A fourth goal was conceded shortly before the late arrival of Jesse Bleeker brought our numbers up to the bare eleven. A further two goals were conceded to leave us 6-0 down and saw us heading off the pitch stunned and with heads down at half-time.
The second half saw a confident opposition continue to attack and looking to get into double figures. Despite their best efforts we did manage to restrict them and concede only two more goals, although we still failed to display our usual resilience and weren’t really able to create too many chances of our own. The game ended with a comfortable 8-0 win to Metro.
Player of the day honours went to Donald Fleming, who kept plugging away at left back and didn’t give up despite the scoreline and repeated attacks from a very good Metro team.
So, a bit of a disappointing performance to say the least. Yes, Metro were a very good attacking team and we did play the opening 15-20 minutes with only 10 men, but I think we did conspire to make them look better than they actually were. Not sure what to put this week down to, but to be honest we were a pale shadow of our usual selves. We did have a few players missing, but still had decent players with a lot more potential than we displayed. Happy to hold my own hands up and plead guilty to putting in a below par performance – if we had subs, I would’ve definitely subbed myself off this week!
Anyway, hopefully this was a one-off and we can get things together next week and round off the season on a more positive note ...
Team: Blair Mason, Dave Wadeley, Petru Musta, Tom Shakeshaft, Donald Fleming, Dale Austin, Mike Thomas, Mark Ellis, Cameron Stevens, Graham Spinks, Jesse Bleeker
Goalscorers:
Final Score: Metro 8 – Pukekohe 0
Next Fixture: Home v Drury Utd, Saturday 13th September (2:45pm)