Undertakers Undertaken

Gus raises a glass at the post match drinks.

So, the annual trip to Wainuiomata. Cue jokes about slack jawed yockels... ...except this time around it was our own yockel Gus who managed to make the Stallions look like the slack jawed,  forgetting his false front tooth.

Unfortunately the Undertakers were not about to look the Stallions (or "Gift Horses", as we turned out to be), in the mouth. Speaking of Gift horses, the long heralded Stallion stick made its début, with inaugural recipient Tom bringing it out onto the field of play.

The start was all the more auspicious when Spencer pulled up lame during the warm up. Given what was to follow, he'd probably have preferred to be shot than sit though it.

This going was very soft under foot after much rain during the week, so we needed all the subs we could get to push through.

We did dominate the early exchanges, however with Paddy recently recovered from his hamstring injuries and Gus playing a more advanced version of his "Walking Midfielder" role up front, the balls over the top through the middle which have become something of a Stallions staple were not having the desired effect.

Early subs saw Paddy, Robin and Graham all off as the Stallions tried to create something going forward. At one point we did, which almost became a bit too much for Paddy whose high pitched voice had Rob enquiring whether he had injured more than just his hammy in recent weeks.

A slightly bizzare clearance/back pass from Jason was an early candidate for the Pony, as having received the ball forward of his own penalty area and under no pressure at all he proceeded to boot it out for a corner.

However worse was to come, as Graham replaced Aaron in the Defensive Midfielder role and proceeded to  put a big chop on one of their players outside and to the left of our penalty area. It turns out that the player chopped had his season ended by a similar chop in the corresponding fixture last season, but we're glad to report he wasn't so badly affected this time around. The Pony moment then came with Graham at the left edge of the wall, anticipating the ball being struck to his left, moved in that direction, only to see the ball go exactly where he had been positioned. His blushes were partially spared by Paul making a good save, however the lingering impression among some that he had moved to spare himself impact would have to be taken on the chin, as would the Pony paraphernalia.

Wainui opened the scoring when their big centre forward, under attention from both Tangihaere and Graham and with his back to goal, somehow squeezed a pass across the face which found his unmarked strike partner. Paul had no chance with the shot from close range, and the Undertakers were ahead.

We've been full of goals all season, and there was plenty of confidence that the game was there to be won at half time. However, it is fair to say we struggled with the pitch conditions, and were unable to make many chances. There were a few enterprising runs made, however we seemed to get fewer crosses into the box than we managed corners. As the game wore on, we pushed more players up leaving space in behind; it has to be said here that the defence played very well in nullifying their attempts to make use of this space.

It finished 1-0, tragedy turning to farce when we found ourselves waiting in the cold outside their closed clubrooms, only to figure out that they were not coming to open up until after they'd warmed themselves in the changing room showers. We finally gave up and went to the local down the road.