Mens 4th Team v South Auckland Rangers

This weekend saw us travel to James Watson Reserve to take on last years’ Division 7 champions South Auckland Rangers.  Despite looking like we would be back up to full strength this week, the late pull-out of a couple of players meant that we arrived with only the bare starting eleven.  A long term injury to regular goalkeeper Blair Mason also saw us in dire need of someone to don the gloves ... step forward Marty Bennett!

A late pitch closure meant that both teams were forced to kick-off without any time for a warm up.  The early part of the first half saw South Auckland Rangers “Mongrels” on the attack, possibly due to our previous results this season.  Having agreed to full use of the 5 available rolling subs (at which time we were expecting our reinforcements, Jason and Shane Harneiss, to arrive), the Mongrels starting rolling on and off in an almost never ending stream every time the ball went out of play.  However, the fact that we had to make do with the bare 11 (although the arrival of Mike Smyth during the half did eventually bring us up to 12) probably helped us to settle down and play as a team.  Good communication between Marty Bennett and the Puke defence (well marshalled by Pete Wild) meant that we were able to keep the opposition at bay and mount several counter attacks.  The Mongrels defence looked to be in a state of disarray for the most part and struggled to cope with the hustle and bustle style of Sven Ludert and also with the many runs made by Ezra Leffalaar from the heart of our midfield.  Both sides had their chances during the half, with the Mongrels attacks largely snuffed out and Puke failing to make the most of theirs.  Half-time saw the scoreline at 0-0, at which point you would probably have put money on that being the final score come full time.

The second half saw the game continue in much the same vein with both sides battling hard, but struggling to find a breakthrough.  However, the Mongrels continued to look panicky in defence and heavily reliant on their more attacking players (well in fairness they do say that attack is the best form of defence).  The hard work put in by all members of the Puke team was ultimately rewarded when Ezra Leffalaar was able to latch on to a great pass from Cameron Williams and beat several opposition defenders before calmly slotting the ball past the oncoming keeper.  1-0 to Puke and no less than we deserved.  However, just minutes later one of the Mongrels strikers was able to latch on to a rare mistake in the Puke defence and even the scoreline at 1-1.  The game continued with the Mongrels utilising their never ending stream of rolling subs, but with the contest remaining even until a penalty was conceded close to full time.  Marty Bennett did exceptionally well to get a hand to it, but unfortunately not quite enough to prevent it bouncing into the post and across the line.  In the dying seconds Puke looked to make a last ditch attempt to salvage a point only to be harshly punished by panicked clearance from a Mongrels defender which was latched onto by one of his team mates and slotted into the back of our net to end the game at 3-1 to South Auckland Rangers.  A harsh result (especially for a game that had ‘draw’ written all over it), but again something to build on and hopefully we should be able to claim all 3 points in the return fixture.

This week’s game was certainly a fairly scrappy one with not too much pretty football played by either side (and with a number of our players ending up on the receiving end of some fairly clumsy challenges), but what it did show was the committment and determination of every Puke player to work for each other and to make the most of what we’ve got.  Given the fact that we were up against last season’s champions and that we were missing players the effort put in this week was nothing short of fantastic and the attitude shown should enable us to take points from some of the lower placed teams when we come up against them in the next month or so.

It’s never an easy task to pick out a clear winner for Player of the Day, but this week was particularly hard.  All 12 guys wearing the maroon shirt this week put in gutsy performances and showed a dogged determination to put an end to our losing streak.  Marty Bennett did an outstanding job in only his second ever appearance in goal in competitive football (and was particularly unlucky not to keep the penalty out).  The defence was solid and worked very well as a unit (particularly in having to deal with constantly changing personnel in the opposition attack).  The midfield and forwards worked tirelessly throughout, with Ezra Leffalaar putting in his usual player of the day efforts.  However, this week’s Player of the Day award goes to Cameron Williams for an excellent effort on the left hand side of midfield, knocking a number of great balls down the line for our forwards to chase and also for constantly tracking back to help out the defence when required.  Next week’s fixture sees us up against more tough opposition in Bay Olympic, but looking to put in a another battling performance ...

Team: Martin Bennett, Matt Stewart, Julian Smith, Pete Wild (capt), Donald Fleming, Armi Sabetian, Dave Wadeley, Ezra Leffalaar, Cameron Williams, Sven Ludert, Craig Upson, Mike Smyth

Goalscorers: Ezra Leffalaar

Final Score: South Auckland Rangers 3 - Pukekohe 1

Next Fixture: Home v Bay Olympic, Saturday 9th May (kick off 2:45pm, Bledisloe Park)