803 views: 2 comments:
Jon Waller posted on June 07, 2009 12:32
Saturday's trip to Papakura ended in heartache, as one of the top sides in our division gave us a lesson in what football is all about. Puke started well strengthened by Shane and Jason Harneiss from the fourths.
We started out playing some neat football and the game was well matched for the first 15 minutes with us probably having the better opportunities. Some excellent running and chasing from Brian Mcdonald created the best chances. Scoring has not been our strong point this year and this didn't look like it was about to change. Shane Harneiss gave us some momentum with his excellent work rate though occassionally overdoing the easy option.
Papakura knew how to play football and some of it was a joy to watch, you felt like you were chasing your tale and they had 14 men to your 11. They had 3 or four chances in the first half an hour and managed to convert three of them. The defence being a little lack lustre in closing down the opposition and the goals were really just soft goals, but in words of Nick Rowe the defence was playing well. Not too sure which game you were playing in Nick but seemed slightly different to mine.
Our stand in keeper for the day Kyle did his best but not really the team you really want to come up against first up. Our best chance came when Irfaan fended off 3 defenders to open up with a great shot that just skimmed the top of the bar.
Anyway the first half ended with us 3 down and the team talk at half time from our captain Adam Moorhouse was to play the ball to feet. This was something we always try to do but unfortunately there was 11 opposing players trying to stop you doing this. They were quicker, fitter than us and ran the right lines with some great controlled passing. Unfortunately we didn't run the right lines and mostly ended up going backwards when we did play it to feet.
Richie Sharples came on for the second half and added that dimension we had been missing to the defence with some great tackling and distribution that brought the team up to another level. It was always going to be a struggle to come back from here but the boys fought hard, battled well and for most of the second half matched them.
There was some great defending from Maddison on the right and some great pace showed in making the runs up the right, well done mate and keep up the good work. Andy Bell had a much better second half and looked much comfortabler in the centre. Again some great work rate from Shane and Jason in the midfield.
Our efforts gifted us two excellent opportunities by some very unselfish play from Irfan to put through Adam but couldn't manage to get his shot on target and then minutes after going close as the keeper tipped his next effort around the post.
Papakura scored again against the run of play and thats how it finished.
From a coaches perspective we were outdone in all parts of the game, when we had the ball we didn't run the right lines, we didn't close down the opposition fast enough. There was some very selfish play in the second half (probably due to the score factor) but this wont help us get to where we need to be.
Also some unnecessary comments were being thrown around and as far as I could see didn't help the team one bit. At three nil down the only thing left was to enjoy it and these comments wont help anyone do that. On the other hand there was some good work ethic, good defending and some very unselfish forward play but we didn't even look like taking a chance so hence we finished up with nil.
Never mind, onwards and upwards, I just hope you boys can learn in watching the opposition play like that.
Player of the Day goes to Maddison Reid, well done mate!
Next Fixture: Home to Beachlands 1.00 pm kick off