Stallions 7 - 0 North Wellington Rebels

It’s not often that you sit down at the pub after a 7-0 win and the mood is somewhat low, but that seemed to be the case after the latest win.  There didn’t seem to be much intensity which is probably to be expected when you aren’t met with much intensity, but when you put 7 goals past an opponent and could easily have had at least 3 more, things must have been going well.

The Stallions defence was largely untroubled and worked the ball around the back with good movement.  Almost all the goals were scored with a number of passes strung together, and I can’t think of any that were scored from outside the box which shows that the tiki-taka style of football is paying dividends.

The Stallions were up 3-0 at halftime with goals to me, Heath and a debut goal for last weeks Pony, Gerald, with Bakky providing the assist for all three.

The first was a well worked move down the left with Bakky putting in a cross which I met with the head and glanced it past the keeper.  1-0.

That shortly became 2-0 when Bakky put in a neat little through ball to G who got there just before the on-rushing keeper and managed to bundle it over the line.

The third came after another ball was whipped in from the left (from a corner maybe?) which Bakky met with his head.  The keeper saved but only managed to parry right into the path of Heath who was following up well to prod it in. 

It should have so easily been 4 but it wasn’t which is why I’m writing this match report.  I think it was Bakky again that put in a neat little through ball which I ran on to.  The keeper came out but I got there first and tapped it past him to his left, leaving me about 18 yards out on the corner of the box.  With an open goal I hit it with my left and watched dismayed as I missed by a good meter or two leaving the crowd roaring with laughter.  Continue laughing fools, your team has conceded 300 goals already this season (or was that Panda and Paddy laughing on the sidelines?).

The second half was much the same.  Bakky prodded in a goal mouth scramble, he provided a tap in for me after jinking to the byline then cutting it back, Heath got on the end of a Paddy corner and nodded home and Graham scored a great goal after Lloyd evaded a few defenders and put in cross which Graham met with his left after running in from right midfield.  Bakky claims that it was 90% shin but I’m pretty sure he’s just jealous since despite being the top goal scorer, none of his goals even come close to being as classy as Graham’s ;).

 Again, amongst all this I earned another nomination for Pony.  Paul put in a defence splitting through ball from the back, I ran on to it, cut back on my left taking out the defender and most of the keeper, and then with my right managed to miss the goal left with about 80% of it being wide open.  However I was not alone in the nominations for Pony and on another day it could have easily been someone else writing this blog.

-          No one will forget Paul’s throw-in in the second half which went twice as high as it did long.  As ugly as it was it was probably a legit throw-in!

-          Joe put in a fantastic cross in the first half.  Unfortunately it was down our end and straight to one of their strikers who was sitting in the box.

-          Paddy’s disgraceful blatant attempt at getting more fantasy points by trying to curl in a corner with his right foot from the right hand corner.  He managed to hit the post but his blatant disregard and lack of respect for the opposition is matched only by Mario Balotelli’s back heal attempt at goal.  We actually gave him Pony for it at the pub but he cried and packed a sad so we felt sorry for him and I got it instead.

-          And had they scored from it, Aaron surely would have got a Pony for his MASSIVE air ball.  Attempting to clear the ball he took a huge swing at the ball and only managed to push it further towards our goal and one of their strikers.  It took a good save from Lachlan to keep the clean sheet.

So after all that, here’s how the breakdown goes:

Stallion – Graham for his great goal.

Pony – Rauru for a shocker of a miss (or two)

MVPs – 3-Bakky (goal and 4 assists), 2-Graham (clean sheet and good goal), 1-Gerald (goal and good work down the left)

Goals (assists) – Rauru (Bakky), Gerald (Bakky), Heath (Bakky), Bakkie (none credited), Rauru (Bakky), Heath (Paddy), Graham (Lloyd)