Salmon avoid losing like the Plague

Wellington United Salmon 2- Brooklyn Northern United 1
Halftime 1-1
Newtown Park

Scorer:
Craig Ireson (2)

MOM Points
Adam Ray -3
Dave Armstrong 2
Callum 1

We won! Nuff Said? oh, alright- The Plague put up a pretty good fight, but were fairly toothless up front. We dominated and played nice football but couldn't put them away until about 12 minutes to go. it got pretty niggly becuase it was so close byt Dave did a damn fine job with the whistle, as well as putting a good shift in as left back in the first half. Both goals came from Craig- first was after their right back coughed up possesion (needlessly) after Ashby put him under some pressure- Craig pounced and driled the ball home. Second was via a long ball from Nic, which bisected the last man and Keeper- Craig took it off them and despite being fouled by the keeper managed to stay upright to prod home into an emptty net from 6 yards.

Overall a fun game BNU are good guys and came back for a beer in the club, but really we did it tough when we mostly outpassed and outplayed them.

Unicorns too good for Salmon

Victoria University Unicorns 4- WU Salmon 2

Halftime 2-1

Wellington College Turf

Scorers

Sam Mills

Matt Fulton

MOM Pts

Sam Mills 3 Pts

Callum Crane 2 Pts

Richard Martin 1 Pt

When is a loss like a win? When you are comprehensively beaten by a team by 6 goals, then turn up to play them again and, despite matching them in the first 30 minutes, go down to 2 well taken goals, only to storm back to take the game down to the wire.

As I said post match; if we played like this every week we’d be chaellnging for the top two, rather than midtable.

We started with ten men so had to grab a Wgtn College boy to fill in for the first five minutes while Tom got ready. We also had the services of Louis mcDonald- since his father John  used to play a few games for the Salmon it means that we are now a 2nd generational team!

The first ten minutes, possibly more, were a real tussle. We sat back nice and deep and absorbed what they threw at us, much to their frustration. After 20 minutes or so they broke through- their deaf striker had a great first touch and finish. Soon after it was two and we were looking at a long night ahead.

Then we won a corner from a Preddle through ball- Craig's cross found Sam unmarked just inside the box and he drilled his header home.

2-1 at the break and Uni knew we were a different team to last time.

We looked deadly down the flanks, with Ashby on the left and Callum on the right marauding- alas they got a third after 15 mins in the 2nd half- A drilled shot was saved by Rich but he couldn't get up for the rebound whcih dribbled over the line- Tom cleared but the ref signalled the goal. We held on and kept at them, working our way into the game- Ashby set up Fulton whose chip shot was just clawed wide by the keeper, and Nic was getting into shooting range.

With the clock running down Uni started pushing for the killer 4th, but when they hit yet another shot wide of the mark the ensuing goal kick was drillled down field, and (as discussed at lenght in the pub afterwards) no fewer than four Salmon nudged the ball onwards toward goal before Fulton finished witha fine chip from a tight angle to make it 3-2 with 7 to play. Uni were worried and their defensive fraility started to shopw as the Salmon now pushed with purpose.

The fight back was short lived, as we pushed they unleashed a ball down the right- a deep lying Lane had the ball skid past him and their tall timber forward ran onto it. Despite missing a mulititude of chances in the match he made this one count. 4-2 with 5 to play. Salmon finished well, winning a further two corners. It was all too late. We acquited ourselves well and gave Uni a run for their dosh, but when it comes down to it Uni are quite simply a better team, not a great team & not wuite as good as they think they are, but clearly the best team in this league, who should now go onto win it. But in football any team can have their day and if we meet them again in the cup we need only play like we did last Thursday to run them close again. 

We also showed we are good enough to foot it with any team in this league when we start strong and fight for the 90.