Stallions vs BNU Match Report, aka, A Good Win But We Should Have Won By 6

With second spot, and a potential late run to 1st spot on the line, the changing room was tense. For those 8 players that happened to be there at least 15 minutes from the game.

Watching the young fellas in red  from the comfort of the clubrooms was somewhat encouraging though, running around in the rain as they were, doing shuttles: someone commented "they've only got 13!"  Suddenly we were playing for the win, a draw was not good enough.

With Heath managing to arrive before the game, we got out there with a couple of minutes to spare, kicked the ball around a few times and in true Stallions fashion were good to go.

And with the mood and focus of the team, the result was inevitable from before kickoff.  Bakky got us underway, strategically losing the toss and sending us into the wind.  Lesson learnt from the last time we played these guys.  We felt a bit sorry for the young fellas, undefeated as they were, so spent the first 20 or so trying to encourage them by repeatedly offering them the ball and asking them to attack.  It was all a bit boring really, so on our first foray into their half we sliced through their midfield and someone (Paddy?) popped the ball over the defenders for Jimmy to cleverly take the ball from right under the keeper's nose and over his head all without breaking his hamstring or a sweat. 

We then, again sportingly, conceded their half but they could not put much on target.  An all round solid defence for the last ten of the half and we went to the break with our lead intact.

The second half saw a much more even contest.  With the wind we put some good passing together, won a few corners, and Patrick showed some devastating pace down the right.  With a more open game, both keepers were tested, and Tim made some outstanding saves to keep us in the game.  We had the better chances though, with Carrick, Gus, and Gerald giving their keeper one-on-one practice.  Carrick managed to put a shot on an empty goal but the ball didn't make the 20 yards.  Admittedly, he was on the ground after a red card offence from their keeper.

A few minutes later and we had the 2-0 lead.  After some "encouragement" from his midfield partner to get back and defend a goal kick, Gus positioned himself perfectly and headed the ball down track one for Carrick to run onto and beat the keeper and score.

This prompted Patrick to taunt the opposition and supporters running down the sideline yelling "we should've won by 6!"  [Ed: at least, that's as I heard it told.]

That took the steam out of the game and we saw the final few minutes out with some more solid defending.

It was a day of all round heroics, great team defence, an exceptional back four, a midfield that ran all day, and strikers causing havoc at every opportunity.  Stallion though to Tim, with some great shot-stoppers and one-on-one saves.  Pony was a split-decision, shared between Rauru for missing both Brooklyn games and Tharron, for "losing" a sock that was already being worn.  [Ed: just a sign of how focused I was on the Big Game.]