Promising 5-0 Result... but Eventful Day at Huntly

Promising 5-0 Result... but Eventful Day at Huntly

The 5-0 scoreline is a testament to just how clinical the Waiuku performance was down at Huntly on Saturday afternoon. It becomes even more impressive when put in context... with the game only lasting 55 minutes before a mutual decision between referee and team captains brought the game to an early conclusion.

The best way to sum up the match is that Waiuku put out a fantastic first half 5-0 performance, which caught Huntly well off guard, resulted in a bit of agitation amongst a few of their players which then degenerated into some reckless play, retalliation and a bit of a brawl.

Under normal circumstances, a red-card or two would have been shown to the primary instigator and retalliator and the game resumed. However, given that it was pre-season and that the Waiuku and Huntly clubs generally have a very good relationship, the referee's suggestion that the match be called off early was accepted. The aggrovation was left on the field and by the time the teams met in the clubroom for a few drinks, the good natured banter commenced and everyone was back on good terms.

The match itself was a brilliant all-round performance. Captain, Logan Drain, took a sharp (if opportunistic) chance in the opening 2 minutes of play to set the scene. Huntly's offside calls were over-ruled and from their point of view must have been the worst possible start to the match. Two headed goals to Derek Sinclair and one headed goal to Cody Ralph were followed by a sharp Logan Drain pass across the face of goal putting Danny Baldwin on the spot to finish. Coach Jim Evans named John Kingsley man of the match, who from a striker's position played a clinical and unselfish game delivering all three of the precision crosses for Derek and Cody.

Over-all, the game was played at a good pace with a nice one and two touch flow making Waiuku look like they had all the time in the world. Another promising outing just prior to league kick-off against Western Springs next Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Waiuku Reserves team played West-Hamilton from the Waikato Div-1. Unfortunately the team came away with a 1-0 loss despite dominating possession and territory. It was an extremely solid performance but perhaps lacked a tiny bit of cohesion in the last passes for finishing. Waiuku took many many shots on goal highlighting their dominance, but were unfortunately not careful enough to guarantee at least one or two were slotted. Very close efforts were credited to Jesse up front heading just wide after beating the keeper to a challenge and to Ken Nicoll who hit the crossbar from a sharp chance rebounded from the keeper. In true footballing irony, when a dominant team fails to finish the job, they can often get punished when luck goes against them and West-Ham managed to slot one of just a few second-half chances to take the victory.