A Great Pony Moment

I don't want to steal your thunder Ben, but somethings need more elaboration thatn your little oneliners. And this has the potential to be one of the greats.

The Stallions have very few moves. Generally we just rely on passing it to Aaron, watch him beat 6 players and then slot it top left. But there is one move of desperation invented by Rauru (clearly based on his time walking Kahu) that gets turned to every once and a while - especially when we are under the hammer. Off the kick-off Rauru will boot the ball deep into the corner and Hodges will run like crazy to pressure the right back. It often works. I have no issue with the move.

But cue last Saturday's game, the start of the second half, Stallions up 1-0. Rauru makes the suggestion lets try that Hodges thing (even though Hodges is not there). Paddy puts his hand up for the task, and changes position to pull off the move, and clearly there is a little bit of 'I'm going to show Hodges how its done' at play.

It all goes well, the right back under pressure from the charging Paddy puts it out and we get an attacking throw. No one seems to notice Paddy putting his hand up for a sub, limping off with a potentially torn hamstring, and out for an estimated 4 weeks. Nice one. Stallions struggle with 1 sub for the rest of the game, and will miss Paddy's umm 'dynamic' presence over the next few weeks.

Paddy, you are no Hodges, but you make a fine pony.

Besides, there were no other pony moments.

Photo: Ususal suspects Paddy, Ben, Aaron, Gus, Rauru and Mike hang out at Stallions Central. Paddy is pulled along in the little cart.

Old Enemies

4 Games into the new season, seems worth checking how some of the old div 7 teams are doing in other grades. A real mixture:

- Perhaps the Sealords were worthy winners last season since they are currently cleaning up Div 6 with 3 wins, a draw, and a most healthy goal diff.

- The young Olympic side seem to be continuing their improvement in the second half of last season including a mauling of us, and are 2nd in Div 8.

- Terrace are struggling in the same grade, only winning 1 of the 4 games, and, according to their match reports, have instigated trainings to set things right! Without their easybeats they can't find any points.

A couple of sad stories:
- Marist Inter promoted to Div 5 haven't even managed to scrape a draw.
- Poor Raiders - we heard they were struggling for players but they have gone from top of Div 6 last season to rank bottom now. Perhaps we should give them Gus back - he ain't getting any goals for us!

In comparison we are doing okay. Now that we have got rid of Paddy for a while I'm sure things will improve.

U.S 1 V 0 University Nairnville pk 25th april 09 3pm

They say a week is a long time in football and that proved the case for the stallions pouncing on an early keeper error too claim a hard fought 1-0 win over a very good University side in great conditions at Nairnville park

A slightly later start of 3pm gave U.S the chance to arrive early and prepare for the game with a good warm up on the new artificial field. with the events of last weeks game firmly behind us, the stallions found themselves in a buoyant mood and went about warming up with a variety of passing drills and keeper throw downs, no penalty shoot out competition this week.

The University side kicked the game off wearing an all black strip,the Stallions set about trying to stop any attack dead before it got into the 18 yard box and ourselves attack with purpose out wide and through the middle,a big game was going to be needed by all of U.S but more so in the midfield and the defense and both stepped up creating chances for our attackers and stopping the young university from getting any real shots on goal throughout most of the game.

It was from our first real attack where we scored the only goal of the game, a corner taken by Patrick out on the right was fumbled by the keeper on the goal line and with two University players scrambling to clear the ball I was able to get a foot to the ball and stab it in the net recoiling with joy as the Stallions took an early lead 5 minutes into the game.

With the early goal giving U.S a lift we continued to put pressure on the opposition,but most of the chances came to nothing, the keeper was having a torrid time with it early on dealing with our corners but he eventually seemed to get more and more confident as the game went on.

Brooks on the other hand was probably catching a sneaky look at the rugby going on behind us because he didn't really have much to do.

A great Chance for U.S in the first half was where Rauru had put a beautiful ball across the face of goal only for no one to be there to tap it in,another had Rauru in an almost one on one with the keeper only for the bounce of the ball going against him,our attackers really getting the better of their defenders at times linking well getting in behind the defenders just unlucky not to put U.S further in the lead, even When Aaron and Panda found themselves as makeshift strikers they tried to cause trouble.

As the first half came to an end it seemed as if the Stallions were the slightly better of the two sides and going into he second half we knew we'd need to put in a solid shift all over the park if we were going to win the game.

We took it to them from the off trying hard to find a winner pushing forward Aaron was unlucky not to put us 2-0 up early into the 2nd half a shot on an almost open goal was sent horribly wide, the pressure continued through out the game Rauru again putting a ball across the face of goal but neither myself or Nick White were able to get on the end of it.

They attacked U.S as well but we held tight, the defence were at their best today the few times the university side got into the box they were hassled off the ball or pushed wide leaving their shots to go a rye or out for goal kicks the stallions only giving up two corners in the 2nd half.

The midfield ran themselves into the ground too they were all over the park defending and attacking it was a great all round performance today

As the game went on the space opened up and our wide midfielders found themselves with a bit more space to run although that also gave the opposition the chance to counter attack and with the young University side throwing everything at U.S it would be a frantic last 20 minutes as the Stallions would hold out and take all three points and keeping our first clean sheet of the season.

Team: Brooks,Jason,Tangi,Mike,Corey,Aaron,Nick W,Patrick,Joe,Rauru,Logan
Subs: Spencer,Panda

Goals Corey 5mins

Next week Karori Aces @ Karori Park #2 2.30pm

Fines

It was a fairly sombre fine session.

Pony - Mike, good game generally but the penalty decided it
Stallion - Me for the penalty save

MVP 3 - Corey
2 - Me
1 - Paddy

Best fines:

Gus - Claiming his lack of hygiene was really creative use of pheromones
Tangi - Flatulence (multiple fines)
Aaron - Yelling 'Now see some goals' when he went to striker
Laughed at by opposition (see above)
Hodges - Stevie Wonder and Forest Gump fines (not sure what they were for, maybe being blind and running round lots?)
Me - Not being able to say precedent in a way that didn't sound like president
Penalty save not being pretty enough
Charging out of the box to join the defensive line

There was also some controvery about the MVP points against Karori. Anyone that was played in that game want to discuss how they were allocated?

Marist 3 v 0 U.S Cobhampark 18th april 09 2.30pm

Marist enjoyed a Comfortable 3-0 win in beautiful conditions against a sorry structureless and ultimately embarrassing University stallions side.

The shenanigans started prior to kickoff, someone had no socks and needed to go buy a pair,someone left their boots at home (I mean FFS, forgot their fucking boots!!) and had to return to get them.

We warmed up with a penalty shootout comp and the opposition warms up with 4 corner passing drills and their two goalies(yes one in reserve) going through their own warm up as well.

When the game kicked off we started reenacting a scene from a Benny Hill comedy sketch the usual one where he runs around chasing shit knows what all over the house with the circus music playing and we were so good at it we did it for 90 friggin minutes !!!
That's the nice way of saying we were fucking shit from the start and it never got better.

Take nothing away from Marist they carved us up, had the defence all over the park while our midfield was none existent throughout the entire game, which gave our strikers no chance of getting forward enough to really attack Marist goal.
The two or so shoots we must have had all came from well outside the 18 yard box,while they had three or so open goals to aim for but for the bounce of the ball saving us serious blushes

Basics let us down in this game
Lack of talk at the back, no cohesion in the midfield, silly passes, just generally aimless football.
Which is why we all need to individually go away this week and think about how we can make it better, because we carry on playing like this were on a hiding to nothing, from the back to the front, we all need to take a bit of a look at ourselves.

This team this season has the best chance to win div7 we proved it against the Island bay side pre season, then Marist Cobras first game up, we are a good footballing side with good football skills lets not let yesterday become our footballing way

highlights were few but Brooks saving the penalty, plus the at times brilliant saves he made throughout the game kept us right in it, sorry we let you down at the back mate.

Lets put this game behind us and look to go on a run of victories, starting next week where we get our chance to redeem ourselves and punish the other University side in our comp with a hammering at Nairnville park.
The kickoff time is listed as 3pm due to it being Anzac day but do check the fixtures list in Thursday's Dompost

Starting team:
Ben Brooks,Joe,Patrick,Jason,Corey,Spencer,Ben H,Logan,Aaron,Rauru,Graham
Subs:
Tangi,Mike B

goals:
marist 3

match preview

Marist inter, 2008 - including everyone's favorite goalie.

Let's face it, last year Marist had the wood over us big time. 1st game of the season, we went down 3-1, but the Stallions were in shock after losing Jamie before kickoff, seeing ben squeeze into the reserve goalie jersey, and the brightness of our new strip.

Round 2 at Anderson was a goal fest - for them. This time the Stallions were shocked to see Graham in goal with his purple 70's disco number goalie top, which looked especially nice from behind - seen lots as G-Mann picked the ball up out of the back of the net 4 or 5 times (can't really remember). This was an especially embarrassing game since the Sealords who played the early game came to watch the 2nd and 3rd teams, and saw that one was clearly better than the other.

Were marist the only team to beat us 'home' and 'away' last season? Both have won 1, lost 1 this season. With 2 teams who try to attack it always seems to make for a bit of a pingpong, action packed encounter. The same will be true on Saturday, especially as the Stallions bring the freeflowing efforts of the last 2 weeks to Cobham Park. No dislocated kneecaps , please. No breaking down at all.

Predictions?

U.S 1v2 Karori Magpies Nairnville #2 12.30pm

Losing Two key players on their return matches to what looks like season ending knee injuries,missing a penalty in the first half when we were dominating the game totally and then conceding two soft goals, made for a disappointing day in the stallions world, going down 2-1 to a Magpies squad looking to carry on their winning run which stretches well into last season.

With many a first team stallion out through family commitments the team was largely made up of players from our "reserve" side all looking too play their way into first team positions and none disappointed with performances around the park from everybody.

If only the result reflected just how well we played.

Starting brightly and playing good football from the back through the front the stallions set their stall out with an attacking and free flowing game plan looking to take the game too the Magpies from the off and so did the Magpies with U.S.

With both sides spurning chances to take control of the game, the Stallions were given a great opportunity to take the lead after a period of dominance that had the Magpies back peddling somewhat and a foul on Tristin in the box gave the Ref no other option but to award a penalty.
Logan stepped up and Struck the shot hard at the keeper the rebound being knocked out for a goal kick which gave the magpies a bit of a lift. 20mins

Cue the "Ludlow curse" #1
An attacking foray down our right flank had the magpies just off our 18 yard box Lloyd managed to take the ball away from the attacker and turned him brilliantly but in doing so wretched his knee instantly going down in agony and needing to be carried off the field and driven to hospital by Ben's dad Steve with what looks like a serious season ending injury.30mins

Having swapped the team around to fill the huge void left in the midfield by Lloyd's departure the stallions tried to quickly get the game going back in their favour playing football like never seen before.
Nick Goodall would be furious with the passing style shown by the four at the back, with the magpies giving U.S quite a lot of time on the ball ,we just unable to convert good chances into goals.

Cue the "Ludlow Curse" #2
We had a throw in ? on the right hand side just about 15 metres short of our half anyway it turned to shit some how and Jamie was forced off his line to snaffle the ball at the top of the box. Now to avoid crossing the line he sidestepped to his right and in doing so popped his knee out going down in agony not more than two metres from where Lloyd suffered a similar injury ten minutes earlier.

So that had the team shitting themselves more so when Ben Hodges put his hand up to play in goal, but it was thought a much better option (wtf!!) was to put me in goal.40mins

That decision proved to be the turning point of the game, with all the changes going on to accommodate the injuries we didn't really get our act together and an attacking run down the middle by the magpies had our midfielders out of position and our defenders left with all the work to do, breaking through and drilling a low shot into the left hand side of goal the magpies took the lead in what can only be described as a soft goal from a previously rock solid defence
0-1 43mins.

H/time

So we get to halftime and Jamie demands, nay, almost attacks me for the goalkeepers shirt, not much i could've done about the goal Christ he'd have been lucky to have stopped it himself.
But such was his determination to get back out there i relented and gave him it back, reminding him that he was only going to make matters worse for himself by playing on that knee.

2nd half
Kicking off the stallion's were the brighter of the two teams and began to press forward on several occasions, way would shots our down fall as we really began to take the game too the magpies.

Jamie lasted about five minutes after taking a high ball he set about launching a kick up field, but putting all the weight on his dodgy knee had him again rolling on the ground in agony and finally making it real to him that injury was very serious and he shouldn't have continued.
Cue me again in goal.

With the game flowing nicely and the defenders generally keeping the magpies at bay the Stallions pressed on looking for an equaliser which would not have been undeserved in the slightest though this was proving a difficult task with our finishing letting us down at times after some very good link up play.

On a counter attack a Magpies player was left unmarked, in trying to play him offside he was able to spring clear and take the ball into the box the shot going in low on the right hand side of goal 0-2 60 mins gone

Not giving up we carried on looking for some way to break down the magpies defence
and a cross into the box had a magpies player playing the ball with his hand, which gave U.S our 2nd penalty thank god Logan was on the bench
Cue Tristin who sent the ball at the keeper, if he'd only stuck a leg out he would have saved it but it wormed it's way into the back off the net to give U.S a lifeline with 15 or so minutes remaining 1-2 75min

We smelt a draw we knew we could get another goal and we tried to get that goal but it just wouldn't come,the magpies now holding onto their lead and looking to reclaim their 2 goal buffer they pushed forward again and tried to chip the goal which I managed to get a hand to and stop launching another counter attack with more twoing and froing the game meandered out and the Magpies took all 3 points 2-1

Stallions: Jamie,Corey,Jason,Paddy,Joe,Alex,Ben,Logan,Panda,Tristin,Lloyd,Sean,Mark,Tharen

goal: Tristin (P)

Next Week another hard game Marist Inter at Cobham park 2.30pm