Waiuku Prems Conquer Mt Albert

 Waiuku AFC continued their unbeaten second round run with an emphatic 3 1 away win over top of the table Mt Albert Ponsonby on Friday night.

As any football expert or pundit will tell you; when the runaway league leaders host a team second from bottom there should only be one outcome from this David and Goliath fixture; however Waiuku were determined to prove that theory wrong.

After Waiuku’s previous week’s solid win over Western Springs the home side came out with the clear intention to stamp their authority on the game early on. The Waiuku back four were still adjusting to the pace of the game when after only 5 minutes NRFL leading goal scorer, Dean Delaney, put MAP ahead with a header at the far post from an accurate deep cross. Instead of dropping their heads after conceding such an early goal, it actually seemed to fire Waiuku up. Captain Jerry Hubbard immediately got the team going forward with a purpose and not long after Derek Sinclair – playing alongside new signing Grant Duncan – had hit the crossbar and forced a great save from the MAP goalie. The equalizer came at the twenty minute mark when Robbie Leonard battled hard to win the ball in midfield and passed to Sinclair who beat the MAP right back and delivered pinpoint cross for debutant Grant Duncan to net his first goal for his new club. Both teams shared some good possession after that but the half finished 1 1.

The home side came out in the second half with all guns blazing and virtually camped in the Waiuku half for the first twenty minutes determined to regain the lead – defending hard and with a little luck the Waiuku’s back four were determined not to concede another goal. Rewarding their defensive teammates the rest of the team went on the attack and after seventy minutes of play they got the goal they were looking for much to the dismay of the vocal MAP supporters. Again Duncan played a part in this attack; after receiving a flick on from Dom Winter he crossed the ball to an unmarked Charlie Heather who almost over ran it, adjusting his body shape he managed to get the shot away and passed the outstretched hand of the keeper. The goal proved to be a real turning point in the already unpredictable game, instead of digging deep and fighting back, finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, MAP almost seemed to give up. They never really threatened the Waiuku goal as the visitors pushed even harder. The final blow came with 3 minutes remaining when Sinclair put the cherry on Waiuku’s cake with a fantastic solo effort which saw him take on 4 MAP defenders before firing across the keeper to put the game out of their reach and sending the traveling Waiuku fans into a frenzy.  3 1 at full time and a result that will most certainly make the rest of the league sit up and take notice.

After the game Jim Evans said “I’m proud of the players and the way they fought for the game tonight. It’s always good to benchmark yourself against the best and there wasn’t a lot of difference tonight. There were many standouts but Derek Sinclair was immense ant gets man of the match”.

Waiuku are back in action next week when they host Warkworth at Massey Park. 2:45 Kick off.

Team – Stu Ruddell, Elliot Crean, Jerry Hubbard, Sam Van Pomeren, Darren Woolnough, Charlie Heather, Phil Donovan, Robbie Leonard, Dom Winter (Mitch Thomasen 65), Derek Sinclair, Grant Duncan (Luke Sutton 75).

Subs not used – Phil Van Den Broek, Evan Crean, Simon Millynn