Spartans feel bite but clawback Pumas

The Spartans struggled to adjust to the pace and accuracy of the 1st division against a well coached,organised  and confident Papatoetoe Pumas. Playing uphill  in the first half at Murdoch Park the Spartans to often waited for  play ,and took to long on the ball. The Pumas took the game to the Spartans and punished  a defensive lap to go one up. The Spartans began to realise they needed to lift  the  tempo. Reife Cox lead the way in this regard for a POD performance. But at half time it was still one zip. The second half saw a seesaw battle but with the downhill in their favour the Spartans started  get the edge. A superb free kick set by Lachlan Woods-Davidson and taken by Phillip Paul made it one all. The Spartans then took control and attacked   only to be denied by good goal keeping and the small  goal mouths. Eventually Scott the shot van Lieshout in his trade mark style weaved  through and nailed a beauty. But the Pumas were not done and fought on in an entertaining game that kept the vociferous supporters of both teams on edge until the end. The Spartans finally  fought their way out to a deserved 2-1 victory. There were loud cheers at the final whistle.The defensive unit of Cameron Rigby , Blake Smith, David Sayer ,and Logan Buchanan were well organised and  held the line until the middle mob and flighty forwards got on top. The whole team fought to the end and the supporters were justly proud of their efforts.The Pumas Coach demonstrating sportsmanship first congratulated  the Spartans and then commented  what a great game. Our thanks to our Referee  Alistair Sayer who controlled the whole match when he would rather  have been watching son David play.