Reserves Back on Winning Form

On Saturday Waiuku reserves visited Mangere Domain to take on Onehunga Mangere United. A fixture which was a must win for both teams. After a string of draws Waiuku were keen to get back to winning ways.

Things couldn’t have got off to a better start when only two minutes into the game Waiuku won a corner. Charlie Heather, playing in centre midfield due to the absence of Owen Hill, placed the corner near post to Jesse Smyth-Kirk who neatly headed the ball home. Still reeling from conceding an early goal Onehunga Mangere were caught napping when Heather won possession in the middle of the park and found a gap in the defense. Smyth-Kirk latched onto the resulting through ball and slotted it under the oncoming keeper and into the net. Only ten minutes later Waiuku again broke away when Robbie Thornton put a ball over the top to the young left mid Dom Winter whose shot was saved well by the keeper, but only pushed into the path of Elliot Crean who tapped the ball into the open goal. Onehunga Mangere began to fight back and looked dangerous on the break but was frustrated by some solid goalkeeping from returning first team keeper Justin Baldwin. Just before half time Onehunga Mangere were punished for some bad defending when Elliot Crean cut out a poor square pass and knocked the ball on to the advancing Smyth-Kirk who made no mistakes to complete his hat-trick. Four nil to Waiuku at half time.

The second half kicked off and it was clear Onehunga Mangere were not prepared to give up. Pushing an extra striker up front they began to dominate and this paid off when Evan Crean tried to clear a deep cross. Crean miss kicked the clearance and the ball struck him in the chin and into the goal. Jason Oliver had to be replaced at centre back due to injury and while the defense was adjusting Onehunga Mangere broke away again. Charlie Heather made the ball but the attacker fell over his leg and the ref gave a harsh penalty. The spot kick was converted and the home team could sense a come back. Waiuku rallied and had a few chances but failed to find the back of the net. With ten minutes to go Onehunga Mangere once again broke wide and the resulting cross was once more put into the goal by a Waiuku player. The last few minutes were a very tense affair but Waiuku held on for the win.

After the game Waiuku Coach Jason Heather said “today proved you should never let your guard down in football, we took our foot off the pedal today and it nearly cost us. The mood in the changing room was subdued because of our second half performance and scoring two own goals. We’ll address these issues in training this week and be better for it. Player of the day goes to Jesse Smyth-Kirk for his first half hat trick”

Team:- Justin Baldwin, Evan Crean, Jason Oliver (Dave Nutt 55), Scott Petersen, Caine Robbie, Chris Mahoney (Luke Dillon 45), Charlie Heather, Robbie Thornton, Dom Winter, Jesse Smyth-Kirk (Luke Sutton 70), Elliot Crean. Subs not used:- Dale Oliver, Vincent Reibold.