End of Season Report

Cheers Corey for putting this together and for all the other match reports throughout the year. A huge effort that's as good as the on field performances.

Uni Stallions Div 7 end of season report 2009

Another year gone and it was another season in division 7 for the Uni Stallions, the greatest team never to win the grade. A main stay in the grade for several seasons, we pride ourselves on being able to give any team a good run for their money and this season proved no different.

With most players in the team just over or well into Their 30’s the challenge was going to be how to keep up with the younger teams coming through the grade and not have to train to do it.

Our answer was simple a robust warm up program before every game of penalty shoot-outs and corners. It seems to work and we managed to get a few good wins against some really good opposition.

The Stallions have become a bit of a football family. We had players return to us this season from overseas and some that had left to try for higher honours. The ‘Ludlow Curse’ struck us again this season as we suffered a few serious injuries our 2nd game of the season against Karori Magpies. We lost two players to dislocated knees within the space of 5 minutes and to add salt to the wound it was both of these players first games back for us, one having been out all the previous season with a dislocated shoulder from game 1, so it was terribly bad luck.

We love to attack from the back and so it was good to see defenders getting their names on the score sheet. One who had been with the team for a few seasons finally broke his duck, and so overcome with the elation of scoring his first goal for the team he promptly subbed himself off to savour the moment. He’ll probably claim it as one of the greatest goals ever seen in a Stallion shirt, everyone else will say it was a cross that got caught in the wind and drifted over the keepers head. Other highlights included getting two wins over the team that won the grade and seeing Ben Hodges score five goals, four of which were so weak they failed to touch the net (one of which has been voted ugliest goal ever seen by a Stallion).

There were plenty of funny moments throughout the season and most games were played in good spirits by all teams. Having finished in the top four of the grade and having played some good football throughout the year, most players are already looking forward to next season.