My first game in goal since the dim, distant tines of 2012 and I end up as Pony. Typical.
I'm not convinced there is huge shame in letting in 3 goals, but when all 3 are scored in pretty much the centre of the goal perhaps it's right to start asking questions.
Still, to begin at the beginning; the Stallions were forewarned that they were stepping up a grade by arriving in our usual piecemeal fashion to find an opposition already kitted up and going through some drills. It was a gloriously warm afternoon. Those of us with more years under our belts and still quietly rubbing our summer bellies (some bigger than others) were sure that their warm-up looked more strenuous than we were prepared to be once the game started. Aaron confirmed the tone by ambling onto the pitch 30 seconds before kick-off, hoofing a ball towards the corner-flag and claiming "that's the warm-up done".
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Eastbourne started marginally the brighter of the teams, stringing some decent attacking moves together. Some heroic, but unsung, keeping and last-ditch defending managed to keep them at bay for about the first 20 minutes. Then they struck. A piercing ball through the attacking left-hand channel set their striker clear - he fired a good low cross across the face of the goal. Paddy, rather pathetically, failed to cover all three of the players they had queuing up for the tap in.
After that, Lloyd and Heath started to assert themselves in the middle of the park and the Stallions played themselves back into the game A deserved equaliser arrived after some smart interplay between Lloyd and Bakkie allowed space for the cross to be delivered - Rauru rising majestically to head past an exposed keeper. The second came from a promising looking Eastbourne attack. Although Rauru seems hell-bent on denying his brother any credit, it was actually a trademark Tangihaere punt of a clearance that caused panic in the opposition defence and helped set young skyWalker on his way. A very cool run and finish into the bottom corner put the Stallions ahead.
Somewhere in there - in keeping with the free-flowing Stallions philosophy - an interchange between Tangi and Joe resulted in a rather optimistic high bouncing back pass. As the ball spun wildly off the turf, I realised it was either let it hit my arm or watch it bounce into the net (a trick I was keeping up my sleeve for later). The indirect free-kick that followed came to nothing. The opinion that I should probably have been sent off for stopping a certain goal was put down to needless pedantry.
Second half started badly. We felt really flat and Eastbourne capitalised. Their strikers were given way too much room on the edge of our area and someone found the space to expertly curl a shot just inside the far post. So fierce was the effort that my exclamation that it had "gone past me and into the goal" was cut off after the first word. Momentum on their side, Eastbourne took the lead pretty soon afterwards with a simple header from a corner. A nice header, but a combination of defenders and keeper maybe could have done better.
The Stallion moment arrived not long afterwards. Another well weighted through ball found their striker clear on the left. I came out and got their just after the him. I didn't really see what happened but apparently the ball (after hitting me - yes, I'm claiming a save) crashed into the crossbar and back out to one of their players. With the opportunity to pick his spot, a wonderful goal-line header from Tangi kept their lead to one.
After that, there was some handbags. Poor Heath got bullied by a skinny 16 year old. The instigator didn't quite get what he deserved - their explanation that "he's only young and small" doesn't really cut it. If you're old enough to kick someone on the ground you're old enough to suffer the consequences. Hopefully someone had words with him after.
Still, the whole thing worked to our advantage. We got angry, they got flustered and it started to show. Free-kicks were picked up in positions where we could capitalise on Paddy's excellent delivery and our superiority in the air. First came a flick from Ra into the path of the tireless GI Joe who gleefully tucked it away. Within moments, we got the lead we weren't to surrender - Lloyd bundling another free kick in with a combination of head, shoulders, knees and toes.
Another "testing" back pass from Joe caused momentary panic when my excellent control again may have resulted the ball hitting my arm. This one was entirely accidental and the ref made the brave call to pretend he didn't see it.
Nice work Stallies. A winning start to life in Capital 5 and some optimism for what prove to be a slightly sterner test next week against the whippersnappers of the Accies.
