Douglas Villa 5
Waterside-Karori Thirds 2
Whatever Tumu Douglas Villa coach Mark Taylor said to his team at halftime worked a treat as the players lifted their ante and came away with the three points to stay on course for promotion from Capital Division Two.
Josh McMenamin scored a second-half hat-trick, and four for the match, in a dominant second-half performance, but the 5-2 margin looked a long way off, after Douglas Villa had given up a two-goal lead in the first half at Park Sports Ground to go into the break locked at 2-2.
“Our attitude was all over the place with just some really poor application at the start of the game and in the second half the players responded to some words at halftime,” Taylor said.
“Attitude, commitment and ability are the three most important things and without it, we can’t be successful, and we improved in the second half and got the response we needed.”
McMenamin’s four goals took his tally for the season to 20 and second in the golden boot race, with the other goal a first-half strike to Tremaine Rimene-Albrett.
“The chances that Josh got he put them away, and he finished well so it’s good for his confidence and good for his goal tally and good for us,” Taylor said
“It was a reflection of what I’ve asked the strikers to do. Two things, either create goals or score goals and across the front three we did that and Tremaine laid on a couple of good balls for Josh and got one himself.”
Taylor was also rapt with the performance of one of the team’s younger players, 17-year-old Liam Gale, who came into the midfield for the final 28 minutes.
“He was exceptional; he laid on a goal and could have had one himself from outside the box and he’s an exciting talent.”
With five games to play, Douglas Villa are second in the league and have a game in hand over third-placed Seatoun. Their next game is away to Island Bay on Sunday.
Victoria University Reserves 0
Greytown 3
Greyfriars Motel Greytown were untroubled in cruising to a comfortable win away to Victoria University Reserves on Saturday.
Captain Jarrod MacDonald found the back of the net after 20 minutes to cap a strong start by Greytown, while Josh Stevenson and Nik Finlay scored in the second half of the clinical performance.
“It was the best start that we’ve had all season and we played really well for the first 20 minutes and we got a goal in that period, where we always seem to start badly and are chasing the game,” coach Phil Keinzley said.
“We played well, and dominated the game. I can’t remember Gary [Hewson] having to make a proper save in the whole game, and the score could have easily been 8-0.”
Keinzley praised Bill Reynolds for playing a blinder at centre back, Harvey Parker, who played “extremely well” well in the midfield, and Charlie Matthews for a strong effort.
Greytown remain second in Capital Division Three and need four points from their last three games to guarantee promotion.
On the face of it that would seem a breeze. However, Keinzley remains cautious because Greytown haven’t beaten two of the teams still to play, leaders Upper Hutt City [a draw], and Petone Under 20s [a loss].
In Greytown’s favour though is that both games, starting with Upper Hutt on Saturday, are at Soldiers Memorial Park, where they are unbeaten.
