Stallions Ride to Safety

When push came to shove and the pressure came on, the Stallions did what they needed to do to get the win and ensure another season in Div 6.

It didn't start too well with Tangihaere "the penalty" Walker giving away his 4th penalty of the year, making it effectively a worse season than when he scored 3 own goals.*  It was a somewhat dodgy penalty from a somewhat dodgy ref (yes, you were dodgy Mr Referee, and I don't care if you throw the book at me Capital Football it needs to be said!) but the penalty was awarded and sent Dan the wrong way. 0-1.

Stallions hit straight back though, well actually, Wainui hit themselves back.  Some good build up play led to Gus whipping in a cross which one of their defenders swung a leg at.  He only managed to shank it off the outside of his foot and he managed to put the ball into the top corner of his own goal.  A great finish that even Butch would have been proud of. 1-1.

The second goal wasn't too far away.  Again Gus was involved as a ball was played into him just outside the box.  He turned on a six pence, beat 3-4 defenders* and put in a powerful shot that the keeper could only parry into the path of Rob who made no mistake from 5 yards. 2-1.

Wainui weren't done though and before the half was out they managed an equaliser.  A ball was played out to their left before being crossed back in to the middle where they finished nicely. 2-2 and half time.

Second half was a pretty even affair with both teams having chances.  Stallions had some good chances with the best falling to this author.  Gus (that man again) played a nice little ball in behind the defence where I had a one on one.  The keeper managed to save but the ball was still there and I managed to touch it away from the keepers grasp and had the ball about 6 yards out on my left foot.  The only nose that was within 10m of the ball had managed to track back and it's owner stood on the line.  With the ball in the middle of the goal I literally only had to put the ball 30cm either side of the player, but on my left foot I managed to smash the ball right into the aforementioned nose.

At the other end Dan was having a blinder, absolutely dominating anything that came inside the 6 yard box.  The save of the match and the Stallion award that followed was from a fantastic dipping volley from outside the box (possibly as we were trying to defend a lead we had taken).  The ball was on it's way to squeak under the bar, when Dan, with his cape with an 'S' on the back, flew high in the air and managed to tip it over the bar.

While all this was going on the referee was blindly not awarding penalties, the most obvious of which was when Glenn got chopped down, with the player going through the side of him, and the ref calling it shoulder to shoulder.  What he did call though was the penalty on Gus (that man again).  After a bit of ball bobbling around inside the box, Gus managed to get it down at his feet and with pressure coming from behind he chose to dig his feet into the mud and allow the player to literally tackle him to the ground.  A smart play and well bought penalty.  I most certainly approve.

The penalty was far from convincing.  At 2-2 and playing on a surface that's not the best for cleanly striking the ball, the pressure was more than last week when we were 4-0 down on a brilliant surface.  The routine was the same but the strike was not as clean as previous penalties, and with the keeper guessing the right way the heart was in the mouth until I saw the ball sneak under the keepers stomach.  As it turned out the keeper guessed too well and the pen wasn't hit far enough away from the keeper and he ended up diving too far and wasn't able to get any hands on it.  3-2 and 100% from the spot this season!

The Stallions did well to see the rest of the game out.  Joe managed to pick up a yellow card for a late chop (not quite as shit a refereeing decision as not awarding Glenn's penalty claim, but almost.  Pisses me off how ref's ref Div 6 games the way they would Div 1.  The tackle wasn't that bad and I'm guessing if Joe was going to get a card he'd want to put in one of his specials!).  The game then turned semi farcical with one of the Wainui players given a straight red card for dissent, then given another red card for even more dissent.  I'm not even sure if you can give a player two red cards but that's capital football refs for you.  This was the same ref that penalised players a couple of weeks ago for leaving their feet even when there were no players in cooee and gave Tom his yellow for his bullyboy tactics.

But I digress.  Stallions held on for the win in what wasn't a pretty game, but we did what needed to be done.  We've played better this year and lost so it was good to get the win, even if it was a little ugly.  Big decisions to be made now - what to do for the last game in terms of positions and what to do for the end of season event.  Get there early on Saturday to have your voice heard.

*numbers and facts have not been confirmed