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.