University Stallions continued their good form from previous weeks to claim all 3 points in a game that saw 3 yellow cards issued to the Wgtn elite side.
Weather had been abysmal all week so it was great too see Saturday dawn fine and reasonably warm,Capital football was forced to cancel 10 grades so it was a relief to see we were still playing as scheduled with no ground transfer.
The cancellations meant we were lucky enough to get an official ref for the game, something Wgtn elite didn't deal with to well.
The ground wasn't too bad although the middle of the park where the cricket wickets had been was complete shite, the end of the game it resembled a muddy pig pen.
Elite kicked off, it took a while to feel each other out but after some attacking forays from elite, we started to move the ball around a bit and began too put pressure on them ourselves.
We got a few corner kicks that were well delivered but were equally well challenged from the elite defence who cleared their lines well.
1st goal,
With the defence holding out the Elite attack with relative ease, the forwards were beginning to get more ball to feet and were trying really hard to take on the elite defence.
Rauru was given a nice ball about 25 or so metres out from Tristin and turned two defenders inside out leaving himself with space just to the left outside the 18yard box and with his left foot curled a beautiful ball into the back of the net past a diving keeper who had no show in stopping that
1-0 20 or so minutes gone.
The rest of the half was i feel dominated by U.S ,the defence was solid all game and made the elite side really work hard to create the little opportunities they had,the midfield playing a key role in holding onto the ball and offering themselves as options to let the forwards get up a bit more so it was good to go into the half with a lead.
Halftime
The halftime talk was positive we all felt we were the better of the two sides the 50/50 balls were going our way, but it was important to start the 2nd half well, after last weeks capitulation we needed to start the stronger of the two sides.
2nd half
And the stronger of the two we were, we went out and attacked elite right from the off and made good inroads into their defensive 3rd gaining a few early corners too, really put their defence under pressure and limiting their attacks.
A few of the Elite players began to get frustrated and when some decisions went against them they blew up at the ref who does what ref's do in those situations he carded them 3 in all 2 in the game and one at the end when an elite player remonstrated about the refs performance.
Their goal
We'd been on the attack for a bit and it was elites turn to put some pressure on U.S.
Taking U.S on through the middle elite managed to worm their way through the midfield and into the back of our defenders and a really nice shot was taken from an elite player about 9 yards out on the right hand side and we found ourselves all level
1-1 55minutes.
Knowing we'd been sucker punched the Stallions began to play with a bit more heart and desire (not that we hadn't been already)really putting in the extra effort to regain what should be a rightful lead, piling on pressure and snuffing out elites attacks before they became dangerous.
it would have to rate as one of the best performances of the season so far from the team really digging deep in all areas.
We were given a couple of free kicks, one was taken 35 yards out on the right quickly by Tristin who crossed it too Spencer on the left hand goal post and he was terribly unlucky not to put U.S in the lead the header just going wide.
our 2nd goal,
We managed to stop an attack from elite and went on the counter, the ball made it's way up the field through some nice passing and slap happy defending,the Elite defence tried to play Hodges offside on the left hand 6yard box but he beat it and got a shot off that went right into the back off the net, giving U.S the lead and Wgtn Elite a mountain to climb. 2-1 75minutes gone
By now Elite were throwing everything at U.S but we remained solid throughout the rest of the game the whole team doing it's bit to hold elite out, the game would ebb and flow both ways until the ref called time and the University Stallions claimed a deserved win.
Stallions: Ben Brooks,Graham,Corey,Jason,Mike,Joe,Aaron,Ben Hodges,Spencer,Rauru,Tristin
Subs: Tangi,Panda
Goals Rauru 20mins,Ben Hodges 75mins
12 comments:
Yep, they didn't handle that well (certainly not as well as I did in the box!)- but it got just plain stupid. Some bad decisions sure, but a neutral ref with no agenda, just get on with it ... They scored of an offside goal didn't they? No crying (well, minimal crying) from the Stallions.
As for the 'ponies' (we still remember that match report Elite!) well played - especially in that first half) carved them up front, got some good attacking play down the wings, defence handled everything. Don't know where their calls that they were all over us came from.
And the goals - Rauru's was great and came with a suitable finger pointing/arm waving celebration, but as for Hodges's ... a winners a winner I guess.
We needed those 3 points to keep us in touch with the leaders, another big one against Stokes Valley (presumably) next week.
Yep, I'm looking forward to reading their match report to see how they saw things. Yes, the ref made some bad calls against them, but if they honestly feel that they deserved any points from that game they were watching a different game than I was. We had a lot more good chances on goal other than the ones we scored, while they were limited to long range shots due to our defence stepping up. Obviously they had been watching the crying that the Chelsea poofs had done cause their behaviour toward ref was just unacceptable, and they deserved the yellow cards they got. Every team has had refs where calls go against them and the only way to deal with it is to just get on with it.
As for the celebration Aaron, yea, I fined myself for it, but I doubt I'll ever score another 20 yard left footer again so...
You've had quite a bit of time to work on your goal celebration - any chance of seeing it this year?
Hey, don't get my wrong - I loved the celebration and am all for it - especially for such a corker. Can't believe you got fined for it!
As for me, yep, have been working on a little cowboy number - getting on my stallion and riding into the sunset firing my six shooter. You will see it soon, 5 or 6 times. There's plenty of time yet.
Although i didn't shoot with venom, I did exactly enough to score. For those still wondering i kicked it with the toe end of my instep and due to the way i had it too close in to my body it resulted in a sort of lobbed shot. It galls me to have dissect the beautiful but i felt in this instance it was required to satisfy the philistines in the team.
By the way, the way i saw it the ball crossed the line before the keeper could get to me rather than the keeper being lobbed.
I have to say that despite the finish it was in fact an excellent winner the goal was at the end of 3 great passes Me to Tristian to Rauru and back to me ...when was the last time we strung 3 passes together and scored..a great team goal.
Even if you were off-side...
Who're the ponies now !
Need another top effort this week to boys Stokes vegas look like pretty hard opposition, so we'll need to be prepared for another battle
Sensational viewing from the sidelines. Nice football, great defence, and 2 lovely goals - not to mention Mike playing like Roberto Carlos!
Good banter on the sidelines between the two benches as well...
An Elite perspective from the YF forum (you have to love the final sentence):
Hey lads, I didn't realise there was a forum for Capital 7 but thought I'd join in and hopefully build some bridges with the other teams in Cap 7.
I look after the Elite and Feverish was spot on when he said there are a few ex-wharfies in our team, 7 in fact.
Can't say I disagree with the Stallions in relation to giving the ref a gob full on Saturday. A bit disappointing as it took our focus away from another good game against the Stallions.
The thing is we had him for our game against the other Uni team and we thought he was great. We were actually happy to have him there when we saw him! It's amusing what 90 minutes can do.
From my point of view on the sideline, Stallions deserved the win on balance of play. Mind you, no one likes losing to a shank of a goal ;-P
where's my flintlock?
Don't even know what that means Ben, but it seems that all of cap 7 are laughing at you. the hits keep coming from the YF forum: 'If one of our lads had scored a shank like that, he'd be in the fine book before the first round is drunk!
i'm glad they can laugh about their loss
Nice work lads! This all makes for great reading. Sounds like I'm missing some classy football, as well as some not so classy but effective football. Where does the term "shank" come from by the way? Good luck against Stokes Valley!
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