Petone For Sure 3- Wellington United Salmon
4
(Halftime 2-2)
Te Whiti Park
Scorers:
Craig Ireson (3)
Jonathon Hudson
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.
