Support the Ball Carrier

Micheal Caine has got it right. Unless you are channeling Pele, pass, let the ball do the work.

ARRGHHH

Sometimes updating these stats on a Sunday sucks.

Tough loss Stallions - worse than last week - at least we were steamrolled then, yesterday we just capitulated. I can't believe how quickly we went from 'what an easy win this is going to be' to 'wait, we can't let this be a draw' to ' damn, we are 2 goals down'. In hindsight we/I should have pulled one of the forwards back to central mid to try to shore up the centre when we got in front, but it looked like we were going to run all over them, and then suddenly we were chasing. 

Hard to say what's going wrong - easy to look at the D and say 14 goals in 4 games ain't good (almost as many as all of last season), but blame don't rest there. We are putting ourselves under a lot of pressure, almost refusing to hold possession, play simple football and support each other. Still adjusting to the loss of Dan (and Paddy yesterday), but back to basics could be the key.

And it ain't going to get easier - next week the rampant wests who had a good win over the raiders. What a good game for us to turn the season around with though right?

Oh, yeah, nominations for Pony/Stallion here. I'm almost tempted for a split Stallion between Gus and Tom for one of the greatest goals we have ever seen from the Stallions, denied by a bad off side call. God, Pony moments galore, not so much funny ones as bad play ones.

Knowing these sorts of things are much less fun when you are losing, especially over the blog, we got special guest Jules to select the mvp points: Panda, Spencer, Aaron in that order. But you know, another week of a pretty poor team performance really.

Guess who?

In one of the most anticipated returns in Stallions history, tomorrow, answering an SOS call (umm anyone else know anyone else?), Jules (the inventor of the twizzle, the turtle, and scorer of at least 1 goal over many seasons  - I think) will be putting on the green and gold for the first time in about 3 or 4 seasons. All those screaming One Direction fans will be making their way to Frazer Park in anticipation.

If I remember correctly, Jules was the first winner of the pony of the season award. That's confidence building.

Wests lose

Or at least draw.

After a few days unable to look at results, I finally did to see that Wests had a draw with Brooklyn - and only scored a measly single goal! Something funny going on, or perhaps they are beatable. Kind of glad we ain't facing them this week with all our absentees.

Fantasy Points vs Raiders

Sometimes this ain't much fun at all.

 

Raiders
Paul
Tangihaere	60+, -2 (4 goals)	0
Jason	60+, -2 (4 goals)	0
Corey	60+, -2 (4 goals)	0
Mike B	60+, -2 (4 goals)	0
Graham	60+	2
Joe	60+, -2 (4 goals)	0
Spencer	60+, -2 (4 goals), 3bps	3
Aaron	60+, 3 (assist), 1bp	6
Lloyd	60+	2
Paddy	60+, 3 (assist)	5
Robin
Panda
Tom	60+	2
Logan	60+, 4 (goal), 2bps	8
Rauru	60+	2

At least the title race is interesting, a 3 way tie at the top

Rauru 25 Paddy 25 Logan 25 Aaron 18 Lloyd 14 Graham 11 Mike B 6 Jason 5 Joe 5 Panda 4 Tom 4 Paul 3 Tangihaere 3 Spencer 3 Corey 0 Robin 0

2

Coming soon to a Pony near you...

The Hammering

A big loss last night Stallions, we haven't faced that in a long while, and its definitely a wakeup call.

Just to note next week's draw is out - we are playing Lower Hutt on Saturday, Fraser Park, afternoon game.  We are in trouble with numbers, and judging by their results this is one we need to win. Couple of injuries last night too - might be missing Paddy for a few weeks - we are really going to need to step up.

A bit of facebook stalking reveals this on the Raider's page: 
Awesome result last night lads, fully deserved. My dad was there, has seen 1 or 2 games per season as long as I've been with the Raiders ('05) and he reckons that was one of the best. Ethan (couple of wicked saves) and the defence were rock solid, the midfield did the work and provided forward momentum and the strikers had a blinder. Andy Thomson will deservedly get the plaudits for the stunning hat-trick but I thought Jules ran his guts out all night in support. The Stallions are a very good side and we ran all over them. My dad reckons it's the shortest Raiders side he can remember, but the FASTEST, and our use of the ball always made us dangerous, he said. Bring on Wests!... in fact, let's bring them on next Saturday 28th, Endeavour Park, 12.30pm.

Pretty good summary I reckon - especially the way ran all over us - the early goal didn't help, momentum, and yes, speed, damn speed ...

Logan's match report will probably be less celebratory, and its probably one to forget, but in terms of our stats:

Stallion: Dan, awesome headed goal
Pony: Rauru - from Stallion to pony, a hat trick of misses (or are they blocks Rauru?), just not what one expects from our inaugural member of the hat trick club.
Close contenders: Panda choosing to watch the league instead of playing, Joe's backpass to their striker, Mike's 'oggie', Corey's is he coming, is he not ... shit, could go on all day ...

MVPs caused a bit of headscratching, a pretty poor team performance all round.
3 - Spencer
2 - Logan
1 - Aaron

Right, so lets turn this shit around.