Salmon hold second place JJs

Wgtn Utd Salmon 3- Island Bay JJs 3

(Half time 3-1)

MacAllister

MOM Pts

Tom Haig 3

Matt Fulton 2

Steve Westcott 1

This was a very credible result, and although many of the Salmon felt disheartened at giving away a two goal lead the reality is that Island Bay, sitting in second spot, were always going to be a tough opponent, and to grind out a draw where in recent times we would have capitulated is heartening.

Salmon had the bare 11 at kick off, and JJ’s had ten. So a quick call to James Stewart had him arrive within ten minutes to take the whistle, by which time JJs’ 11^th player arrived.

Salmon started like a force of nature, in fact the first fifteen minutes was probably our best start to a game yet and it set the scene for the entire match.

Within the first minute Sam Mills fed a long ball past their flat back four for Craig to run onto. The keeper was drawn out to cover but Craig won the foot race, lunging to toe poke it past the keeper into the empty net for 1-0.

Island Bay were quite clearly stunned as Salmon came again, this time Craig set up Sam who ran into the box, stopped and fed the ball back to the Skipper. Poor Ashby, unmarked at the far post, had to watch the skipper waste another chance with a miscued shot. It was a let off for Island Bay. A let off that lasted about ten seconds. The keeper took the goal kick and generously passed it to Craig at the top of the box who trapped and returned it forthwith into the net. 2-0.

Any momentum JJ’s did manage to generate towards our goal was ably deflected by our back four of Tom H, Adam, Tom M and Dave, and when this was breached Rich Martin saved smartly.

Salmon now drove on to finish the job, with Steve, Ashby, Callum and Sam all looking lively. Sam was certainly worrying their defence, that was until he was on the wrong end of a chop which sent him off the field for 5 minutes, and did enough to stall our momentum. Island Bay now rallied and soon after won a string of corners which were all well dealt with bar one. A clearance fell to their right wing who lined up a 20 yard drive which managed to find its way through the wall of Salmon for a 2-1 scoreline.

Salmon were not finished however as just before the break Steve broke down the right and crossed an inch perfect ball to the 6 yard box where Fulton had found himself unmarked for a nod in. 3-1 at the break.

Salmon were bolstered at half time by the arrival of Nic and Lane. The tactics were to sit nice and deep and let JJ’s come at us, absorb it and then break away. These tactics almost worked to perfection as Sam Mills broke down the left to cue up Lane who almost bet the keeper with a low shot. The first ten minutes of the half were in fact a continuation of the first, and if Salmon had taken one of the chances presented the game could have been won then and there.

As it was Salmon tired as the pressure was put on by JJ’s. Their tall timber centre forward claimed a loose ball and poked in their second. A rare Salmon corner was well taken by Sam and saw Tom head over the bar from close range. With 20 to go it seemed as though all 11 players were defending, in fact at one point all eleven were in the box.

With ten to go JJ’s equalised, when their bespectacled striker turned in a shot despite the close attention of Nic and Craig. JJ’s finished strong, looking to pick up the winner but to no avail, Salmon held on to claim a valuable point.

A season is made up of gritty results which includes wins and draws- I firmly believe that this was a point earned rather than two points dropped and sets us up nicely for this Thursday evenings gamer against table topping Varsity.

Petone For Sure 3- Wellington United Salmon 4

Petone For Sure 3- Wellington United Salmon 4

(Halftime 2-2)

Te Whiti Park

Scorers:
Craig Ireson (3)
Jonathon Hudson

MOM Points:

Jonathon Hudson -3pts

Michael Ashby – 2pts

Craig Ireson-1pt

Salmon were looking very short on Friday with only 9 players available- a call to the club was met with some reinforcements from the Elite and former Salmon Jonathon Hudson, who now plays for the Third team.

To add to the sense of disorganisation Capital Football had double booked us on Petone #2 so moved us to 12.30, then decided to move us again to the lush League pastures of Te Whiti Park.

So it was almost a result in itself that at 12.00 we had a full squad of 14 turn up, with Wazza making his 2012 debut.

Within 2 minutes Salmon had opened the scoring, something we were not used to doing so soon. Jessup sent a carefully weighted through ball over the defence for Jonathon to run onto, and run he did. He drove towards the near post, drawing out the keeper before rolling it across the box to Craig who slotted a simple left footed tap in.

Salmon then took the ascendancy, winning plenty of ball in the middle and releasing the wings for romps. Despite the organised manner it was a disorganised Petone defence which contributed to the second. Steve Westcott put a ball through for Craig, which was intercepted by the Centre Back on half way. Confused and under pressure he turned and played it into the path of Craig who took it in his stride and pushed past the cover defence to score a 1v1 against a now very irate Petone keeper. Craig was played in for a third after Jonathon picked him out with a pin point chip into the box, but the keeper smothered the rushed shot.

To their credit Petone scrambled, and with the strong wind at their backs picked up a first against the run of play with a long, looping cross –shot from the left.

With ten to go until the break Petone got a comic equaliser, as Richard M. and the defence got the wires cross and their head-banded striker, a ring in from Miramar no less, got between them to head into the goal. The comedy came from Tom H. and Adam H. falling over themselves to usher the ball into the goal, fighting a losing battle as the wind pushed the ball onward.

Petone pushed for a third but Salmon held out; it was probably a fair reflection of the half that it was a deadlock but the wind was worth at least one goal in the second half.

And so it transpired. The next 35 minutes were all Orange- The Elite lads really played their part, as did Ashby, running hard and pressuring the middle of the park. The third came from a wind assisted long ball which Craig took around the keeper for another tap in.

The goals could have kept coming but for a few smart saves from the agile For Sure keeper. Matt Fulton could have had his seconds for the season when he narrowly missed from a corner. The fourth goal came from Wazza marauding down the left wing; a cross was pushed onto the post by Fulton and the rebound fell kindly to Jonathon at the far post for a tap in. 4-2 with 15 to go and the salmon were in cruise control.

But it wasn’t to be a cruisy end after another mix up at the back allowed their bandanna’d predator a second goal with 9 to play. Salmon now went backs to the wall as Petone pushed for the equaliser. It would have been a travesty had they found it as Salmon were the better team throughout the day save for a few key moments. Just like against the Meke Salmon managed to hold out and took all three points, climbing back up the table to fourth.

Well done lads, the challenge is now to back it up with an even better performance this coming Saturday at Melrose against the youthful North Wellington.

Game time changed tomorrow

Kick off is now at 12:30pm instead of 2:30pm for KO tomorrow against Petone ( Saturday 12 May)

Location is now Te Whiti:
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=te+whiti+park&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Salmon lose to Naenae

Wellington United Salmon 0- Naenae Unify 5
(Halftime 0-4) Wakefield Park

MOM pts 
James Stewart-3 Tim Murphy 2 Nic Preddle-1

Not much to say lads except we paid the price for a fairly gutless first 45 minutes, allowing Naenae to outmuscle us and score four relatively soft goals. We had our chances early, and towards the end of the first half we rallied to get some shots away, but we never really threatened.

To our credit we manned up in the second half and showed a bit more grit, James and Tom M in particular began to stamp their authority on the defence, but Naenae scored a fifth and we failed to score at all, and even if we had four early, unanswered goals killed off any hopes of a famous Salmon come back.

The league is still incredibly tight and despite this set back we are still in the running- all we can do is learn from the experience and turn up this Saturday  against Petone and give them a run for their money.