Dave Wadeley posted on April 27, 2008 13:20
This week’s home fixture against South Auckland Rangers saw us missing a couple of players, but still able to field a squad of 15 players for the first time this season (thanks to Paul and Jon from the 3rd Team, Matt Stewart from the Reserves and Matty Bent from the Under 17s). Having said that we were still going to have a tough day against an opposition that had scored 15 goals in the previous three games, not to mention the fact that not a single 4th Team player has managed to play in every game this season.
Unfortunately we started off in typical fashion, conceding two early goals in the first half to give ourselves a mountain to climb. However, the Pukekohe players again showed their spirit and commitment by not letting their heads drop, denying the opposition further chances and putting pressure on their defence.
The second half saw the team up its game (which has been characteristic of the 4th Maroons so far this season) and continue to pressurise the opposition. The hard work paid off when Dale Austin got himself on the scoresheet to bring us back into the game and a succession of corners saw us come close to levelling the score. However, time eventually got the better of us and the clock wound down to leave the final score at 2-1 to South Auckland Rangers.
Credit to players from both teams for a tightly contested game in which the Maroons can consider themselves unfortunate not to come away from the match with at least a point (if not all three). If we can manage to limit our propensity to leak early goals and make the most of our own goalscoring opportunities then we can start to rack up a few points in a division in which we are certainly not out of our depth.
Thanks to Tom Cramer for refereeing the match and to the many supporters who were at the game.
Team: Jamie Clarke, Mike Thomas, Neil Kraakman, Dave Wadeley, Blair Mason, Dale Austin, Colin Case, Jon Waller, Donald Fleming, Jesse Bleeker, Matty Bent, Emil Bojam, Petru Musta, Paul Coles, Matt Stewart
Goalscorers: Dale Austin
Final Score: Pukekohe 1 – South Auckland Rangers 2
Next Fixture: Away v Ellerslie, Saturday 3rd May (2:45pm)