The blues pinch the points….

The last day of the season provided some glorious weather and for once this season a decent pitch. Both teams set about their game plans well with the blues starting stronger. Chances were limited, however, we could have gone a goal down inside 10 minutes when our defence were caught napping and an unmarked ‘blue’ side footed from 7 yards. To our relief the ball went 15 feet in the air over the bar. The maroons were working hard in midfield but were struggling to cope with some quick movement from the blues. On 25 minutes the blues had the ball in the back of the net only for play to be brought back for offside.

Slowly but surely Scott Kerr, Duncan Moxon and Andy Bond began to disrupt the blues in midfield and some tireless work from Ben Johnstone and Joe Morris negated any threat from the blues wide men. Our first attempt on goal came on 30 minutes with Scott shooting over from 25 yards and 5 minutes later Bondy had a crack.

Half time and 0.0. The blues were becoming frustrated and, more notably, their bench was interestingly and unusually quiet. The maroons had stuck to the plan and the players were stepping up to the mark, things had clearly improved since our last outing at Massey Park. The second half saw the maroons start to control midfield and start to play football. On 60 minutes a storming 70 yard run from Ben saw him in on goal only for his shot to be straight at the keeper. 3 minutes later Keegan Saville was played in on goal his shot sailing to the corner only for the keeper to stick out a foot. The resulting rebound fell to Ben whose cross was met by Joe Morris, the header flying wide of the left upright. On 65 minutes Keegan’s pace was proving too much for a sluggish blues back line. His second one-on-one with the keeper saw his shot tipped out for a corner.

The 70th minute saw the game changing moment Cody Ralph was sent through in on goal as Joe was racing back to catch him there was a clip of heal and down he went – penalty, 1.0 down.

The last 20 minutes provided some end to end football with Jamie Clark pulling off a fine save at the feet of the blues striker, the blues hitting the bar and an equally fine save from the blues keeper following a superb volley from Scott. The last 10 minutes even saw the appearance of Andy Davey for one last crack at the blues and what a story that could have been.

However, for the second time this season the maroons went down to the blues, but this time it was a much improved performance. The maroons created chances and had the blues on the back foot in the second half, up until the penalty. The maroons arguably deserved more but once again to survive at this level of football you have to take your chances. With the season now over it is time to reflect, learn and start preparing for next season.

A big thank you to all the support for the day, to the team and well done Waiuku you have to be congratulated for a good season, watch this space though the maroons are just over your shoulder!

Team – Jamie Clark, Ben Johnstone, Andy Hey, Dave Allan, , Duncan Moxon, Jason Paranihi, Scott Kerr, Joseph Morris, Andy Bond, Keegan Saville (Brad Frost,75), Jethro Conway (Andy Davey, 81)

Subs not used – Josh Wright, Chris Mahoney

Man of the Match – Dave Allan