Greytown’s Jarrod MacDonald breaks away from the Island Bay defence. PHOTOS/JADE CVETKOV
Wasteful Greytown share spoils
FOOTBALL
CHRIS COGDALE
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Greytown 2
Island Bay Jjs 2
Wastefulness in front of goal has come back to haunt Greytown Fresh Choice as a combination of missed chances and a stubborn Island Bay defence forced a stalemate at Soldiers Memorial Park on Saturday.
With the home side at times playing some sublime football, Island Bay JJs were hanging on by a thread at halftime, but grew into the game through the second half and had chances themselves to take all three points back over the hill with them.
First-half goals to Isaac Higgins and Jarrod MacDonald had Greytown ahead twice, but both times the visitors took advantage of mistakes at the back to draw level and a scoreless second half meant the teams shared a point each.
Man-of-the-match Josh Thompson led the backline well with right back Max Mitchell again starring with his blazing runs down the right wing and strong defending, while up front, MacDonald was tireless, but couldn’t get enough decent ball to score the decisive goal.
The result has Greytown drop to third on the Capital Division Four table. The next two weeks could go a long way to deciding the team’s fate this season.
They host runaway leaders Wellington United on Saturday, followed by an away trip against second-placed Marist at Kilbirnie Park.
Stokes Valley 7
Douglas Villa Magpies 2
A shell-shocked Douglas Villa Magpies conceded five goals in nine minutes in a horrendous start to their Capital Division Two game away to Stokes Valley on Saturday.
Former Wairarapa United player Ben Ravenwood opened the scoring for Stokes Valley after seven minutes, with further goals added after eight, 10, and 11 minutes before Ravenwood’s second in the 16th minute.
Magpies’ manager Nathan Cottle said the team weren’t helped by a disjointed warm-up, with their five college players only arriving 15 minutes before kick-off, but he added that was no excuse.
“We started really slow, and we were just shocked really and thought what the hell has hit us,” said Cottle
“Chris Cox in the midfield saw where we were lacking and he moved it around on the go, and you would’ve thought at 5-0 down it would’ve been heads dropped but it wasn’t, and for 60-70 minutes it was pretty even.”
Magpies pulled a goal back through Kurtis Payne from the penalty spot before halftime, and then had a one-man advantage after a Stokes Valley player was red carded.
An own goal early in the second half narrowed the gap to three, before the home side added two further goals.
“Until the last whistle we gave it everything we had, we were still trying to score goals. We’re still positive and it’s just a bit of a blip.”
Magpies are eighth in the league, one place from the relegation zone, and ahead of Waikanae on goal difference.
Their next game is on Saturday at home to Petone Thirds, who they lost to 2-1 in the first round.
Magpies will have two of their experienced players, brothers Josh and Marcus Logan, back for the clash, however, Stephen Sprowson, who has played the last three games since returning from his US university is heading to Wanaka to play with his twin brother Anthony’s team.
Victioria University Raiders 2
Masterton Athletic 1
Progressive Engineering Masterton Athletic coach Stu McLean is disappointed with the team’s poor effort in going down to Victoria University Raiders at Kelburn Park on Sunday.
Athletic went into the game on the back of three straight wins, including a 4-2 win over high-flyers Greytown Fresh Choice last, and McLean was confident of continuing their resurgence against the winless Victoria.
“It was Jekyll and Hyde compared to last week,” McLean said.
“There was no fizz, no urgency, no sparkle. We were poor, nothing more than that.”
The home side took the lead with the first of two penalties, before Glen Fraser equalised to make the score 1-1 at halftime.
Victoria regained the lead with their second penalty, which also led to Athletic being reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Jon Dudley was red carded for alleged dissent after the awarding of the spot kick.
“When we strung some passes together we looked all right, but we were just guilty of giving the ball away and just trying to do fancy stuff when we just needed to do basic stuff,” McLean said.
“It’s the least amount of shots we’ve put on target all season, but Vic Uni defended in numbers on the edge of the box and really made us work hard to get through it.”
Athletic are at home on Saturday to Petone Stonecutters, who they lost to 3-0 in the first round.
WOMEN
Tawa 1
Wairarapa United 1
A very young Tumu Wairarapa United fought out a brave draw away to Tawa to retain their unbeaten record in the Wellington Women’s Division One.
United went into the game with a very much weakened team, with several experienced players away over the Queen’s Birthday Weekend.
That made little difference though as United took the game to their experienced opponents.
Aimee Ford gave United a 1-0 halftime and they looked set to record their seventh victory until Tawa equalised with about 12 minutes to play.
“The effort from the girls was fantastic,” said United coach Radha McGlashan.
“They are all young, and probably our average age was 15 or 16, so it was a massive effort.
“In our backline the oldest was 16 and we had two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old, so it was pretty good from them, and I couldn’t expect any more or less.”
United lead the championship on goal difference from Wellington United Opals. They play the last game of the first round on Sunday at home to Lower Hutt City.
