posted on September 28, 2006 11:39
In their last official outing of the year, the ladies’ first team lined up on Sunday in the annual Pukekohe women’s tournament at Bledisloe Park.
In all there were 11 teams taking part including; Pukekohe (first team/reserves), Waiuku (first team/reserves), Glenfield, Hibiscus Coast, Bay Olympic, Western Springs, Birkenhead, Onehunga Sports and Manurewa.
The ladies were part of Pool A along with Onehunga Sports and Western Springs. The fourth team in the pool, East Coast Bays, pulled out of the event.
After a lovely team photo the Maroons began their day at 9am against division three rivals Onehunga Sports and after two 20 minute halves, had a 1-0 win to show for their first-up effort. “Whippet” grabbed the only goal of the game.
The ladies then had a two-hour break before their next match with Western Springs which was spent wandering the park watching other teams, eating lollies, eating sausages, eating Crunchies, trying to find a nick-name for Morris, and enjoying the spectacular Sunday weather.
When midday rolled around the Maroons met Western Springs and dominated the match from start to finish, taking a 3-0 win over the division two champions thanks to goals from Nikki, Emma and a goal-of-the-day candidate from distance by Gaylene after Emma’s initial effort crashed back off a post.
The victory gave the ladies top spot in the group and a quarterfinal clash with local rivals Waiuku.
After a short rest, the most intense match of the day began on the number one pitch.
The Maroons started brightly and strung together several quality possessions before Waiuku grabbed the opener in a trademark counter-attack.
A ball over the top sprung the speedy Rose Kraakman and she made no mistake in tucking the ball home past an exposed Emily in goal.
Despite falling behind, the Maroons continued to spray the ball around but could not force an opening to pull level.
They were made to pay for that when the visitors doubled their lead before halftime when a free-kick floated its way into the back of the net.
Before the break, Ally was involved in the best moment of the match as she produced perhaps the best comment of the entire season.
A Waiuku player was intent on showing Pukekohe “how to play Division one,” to which Ally flatly replied:
“Yeah - kick and chase. Bring It On”
Quality.
When the coach picked himself up off the ground after laughing himself silly, he reminded his side not to panic and not give the visitors too much respect.
This reporter didn’t see too much of the second spell as he attended to Kelsey after she took a heavy knock but the ladies fought bravely to the final whistle.
While the final score might say 2-0, the home side had the better of the possession game and their passing style involved all 11 players on the park.
Style matters.
And Pukekohe have it in spades.
The Maroon ladies can look back on a successful (not to mention fun!) day out at Bledisloe in their last official action of a long season.
Congratulations to Waiuku who went on to win the tournament with a 1-0 victory over fellow division one side Bay Olympic in the final.
Huge thanks to Catriona Bennett, Pete Wild and countless others for organising such a great event.