Wellington Marist
Douglas Villa
Tumu Douglas Villa coach Mark Taylor was disappointed with his players’ fighting spirit after the team suffered their second loss in Capital Division One at Kilbirnie on Sunday.
Villa controlled the first 15 minutes and took the lead through a nicely worked goal to Tremaine Rimene-Albrett after three minutes, but the momentum swung when Ahmad Othman equalised in the 16th minute with a long-range effort the Villa defenders failed to shut down.
“We were on top, and then we stopped playing, we stopped keeping and valuing possession, and we started to force play and giving the ball away and allowed them to come into the game, and when we were defending, we were closing players down; we just weren’t effective in shutting off the ball,” Taylor said.
A Peter Moger goal gave the home side the lead before Josh McMenamin levelled the scores just before halftime. A second Othman goal midway through the second spell sealed the three points for Marist.
I guess the approach to the game was that they were desperate to win it and fight for everything, and we didn’t fight hard enough to get the win,” Taylor felt.
“The commitment and desire and everything else we didn’t match Marist, and we gave them two goals. The second was really sloppy, and the third goal we tried to play out from the back.
“Once they got on top and got confidence, they caused us some problems, but we shouldn’t have allowed that in the first place, and that’s something we’ll need to sort out.”
Villa’s cause wasn’t helped by the loss of two of the more influential players, Simon Mazey and Ed De Lara-Bell, at halftime with injuries.
Villa remain in second place in the championship, four points behind unbeaten Western Suburbs. They host bottom-of-the-table Wainuiomata at the Park Sports Ground on Saturday.
Greytown
Miramar Rangers Reserves
Greyfriars Motel Greytown’s proud record of not having lost at home for almost two years came to an abrupt end on Saturday with the severely depleted side going down to Miramar Rangers in their Capital Division Two clash.
Brodie Palmer looked to have rescued a point for Greytown with an equalising goal by in-form striker Brodie Palmer, but two goals in the final 15 minutes sealed the victory for Miramar, giving them the lead in the championship race.
Greytown’s prospects of holding on for the draw were dealt a big blow in the second half when one of their key defenders, Harvey Parker, was forced off with an injury, adding to the frustration for coach Phil Keinzley.
“We’re really struggling, and we’re chronically short on the bench,” he said.
“We still had a number of chances but hit the crossbar and that sort of thing, and Miramar would be the best team we have played in the league.”
One positive for Keinzley was the return from injury of Josh Saxton, who he said “played extremely well and made a significant contribution.”
Despite the loss, Greytown remain second equal in Division Two but third on goal difference. They travel to play fifth-placed Stop Out on Saturday.
