Victoria University Accies 1 Greytown 4
A second-half hat-trick to Jarrod MacDonald propelled Greyfriars Motel Greytown to their third straight win in Capital Division Three and ended University’s unbeaten start to the season on Saturday.
Greytown coach Phil Keinzley said it took a while for the team to settle with poor passing and a lack of accuracy leading to a scrappy start to the game on a Kelburn Park pitch that had longer than usual grass, making passing difficult.
The visitors finally clicked towards the end of the first period when assistant coach Josh Stevenson broke the deadlock scoring his 11th goal in three games.
University equalised shortly after the halftime break, but from then on, it was all Greytown, with MacDonald deadly in front of goal, completing his second hat-trick [both in the second half] in the past two weeks.
Keinzley made several changes in the second half, and he said all those players made a difference. However, one of the veterans, Waisake Sabutu, stood out for Keinzley with a strong 90 minutes, while he said Landon Palmer also impressed as a winger.
Greytown lead Capital Three on goal difference from Wellington United. Their next outing is away to Upper Hutt City, who suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday to Wellington United. Douglas Villa
Horowhenua Coastal
Failure to capitalise on their opportunities cost Tumu Douglas Villa as they fell to their first loss in the Capital Division Two championship.
Douglas Villa dominated much of their first home game of the season against Horowhenua Coastal, but it was the visitors who made the most of their limited chances to walk away with the three points.
Horowhenua took the lead in the first 10 minutes with a speculative shot from outside the box, which came out of nothing. From then on, though, the home side dominated until conceding a late goal when an opposition player swooped on a poor clearance with Villa pushing up in search of an equaliser.
Villa coach Mark Taylor praised the effort of his team, saying that they never gave in, played some good football, and created a few chances but just weren’t clinical enough in their approach play or more accurate in front of goal.
Josh McMenamin, Simon Mazey, and Chris Cox all had good chances to find the back of the net but lacked the final execution.
Taylor was also impressed with the hard work of Caleb Anstis and Andrew Cox, who had the better of the midfield battle.
The loss, which is the first of the season and has dropped Villa to eighth in the 10-team league, was a good learning curve, said Taylor.
“The players are gutted. They all gave c100 per cent, and you can’t ask for more than that.”
Villa next play the bottom of the table Island Bay United Thirds at home on Saturday.
