Douglas Villa
Victoria University
Tumu Douglas Villa avenged their Chatham Cup loss [2–1] to Victoria University on Anzac Day with a gutsy 2–1 victory in a hard-fought Capital Division One clash at Trust House Memorial Park on Sunday.
It took until midway through the second half and a couple of astute substitutions by Douglas Villa coach Mark Taylor to finally break down the stubborn University defence, and it came through Cook Island international Tremaine Rimene-Albrett, who earned and converted a penalty within three minutes of taking the field.
“I wanted some energy up front and made a couple of changes and brought on Tremaine and Simon Mazey, and they made a bit of difference and caused some problems to their backline, and that started to get things moving for us,” Taylor said
The lead was short lived, with Jake Nicholson equalising, also from the spot, before Josh McMenamin restored Villa’s lead with about 10 minutes to play.
“They are well organised, and they made it difficult for us – it certainly wasn’t an easy game.
“We probably had a bit more of the game, but they had the ability to create chances and caused us some problems, so we had to defend well and make sure that with the possession we had that our structure was right, and we got the ball up the pitch in good areas and tried and create some chances.”
University pushed hard for an equaliser in the final few minutes, but Villa did enough to bag the three points and retain second place in the championship.
Villa’s next outing is away to the Phoenix Fourths at Fraser Park on Saturday.
Lower Hutt City
Greytown
“After playing just two days ago in the Chatham Cup on Thursday, I always thought today’s game could be a potential banana skin.”
Those were the words of coach Phil Keinzley in his after-match speech following Greyfriars Motel Greytown’s 3–2 victory on the turf at Fraser Park over Lower Hutt City Reserves.
Despite leading 2–0 early in the game, Keinzley was never comfortable as he felt the Hutt side was a good striker short of being a dangerous team after the hosts had missed a number of chances in between goals by Jarrod MacDonald from the penalty spot and Andy Traill’s flick header from a Landon Palmer cross.
The home side pegged a goal back two minutes after Traill’s header before Brodie Palmer restored the two-goal lead with a brilliant solo finish after a superb pass from Ryan Butler. A late Lower Hutt goal gave Greytown a nervous last five minutes, but the players dug deep to secure the win.
Man of the match Brodie Palmer and brother Landon were standouts for Greytown, constantly harassing the Hutt defence, while MacDonald was a constant threat, and there were strong performances from Harvey Parker and Traill, while Butler’s passing out of defence could only be described as outstanding.
After a busy week of three games in seven days, Greytown sit top of Capital Division Two on goal difference from Stop Out and can get back to their normal schedule with a home game next Saturday against the combined Horowhenua-Kapiti Coast team Te Kotahitanga at Soldiers Memorial Park. comfortable as he felt the Hutt side was a good striker short of being a dangerous team after the hosts had missed a number of chances in between goals by Jarrod MacDonald from the penalty spot and Andy Traill’s flick header from a Landon Palmer cross.
The home side pegged a goal back two minutes after Traill’s header before Brodie Palmer restored the two-goal lead with a brilliant solo finish after a superb pass from Ryan Butler. A late Lower Hutt goal gave Greytown a nervous last five minutes, but the players dug deep to secure the win.
Man of the match Brodie Palmer and brother Landon were standouts for Greytown, constantly harassing the Hutt defence, while MacDonald was a constant threat, and there were strong performances from Harvey Parker and Traill, while Butler’s passing out of defence could only be described as outstanding.
After a busy week of three games in seven days, Greytown sit top of Capital Division Two on goal difference from Stop Out and can get back to their normal schedule with a home game next Saturday against the combined Horowhenua-Kapiti Coast team Te Kotahitanga at Soldiers Memorial Park.
