SHOULDER TO SHOULDER: Thistle midfielder Max Logan (right) tussles with Gisborne United player-coach Corey Adams in a game last season. Logan returns to action tomorrow, while United have a bye. File picture by Paul Rickard
You can have your Manchester, Liverpool, London and Glasgow rivalries.
We’ve got our own beautiful, loud, crazy derby day, the seating is all covered and admission costs no more than a gold-coloured coin.
Gisborne Thistle and Gisborne United put on a football treat at Childers Road Reserve on Saturday.
It ended 2-2, and that was fair enough. Both teams deserved something from this match.
Heavy Equipment Services United went into the game in third position on the Pacific Premiership table. Thistle were seventh.
So it was a surprise to see Thistle play with such assurance in the first half and go two goals up. They came from close-range, first-time shots by industrious striker Jake Theron in the 30th and 38th minutes . . . strikers’ goals, coach Garrett Blair called them.
United got the quick reply they needed, in the 41st minute, when midfielder Josh Harris’s shot from 12 metres took a big deflection that left goalkeeper Mark Baple stranded.
And it was Harris who turned up at the far post to dive forward and head the ball into the empty goal after Baple had tried to intercept Corey Adams’s right-wing cross in the 80th minute.
Baple was kicking himself, just as United keeper Jack Faulkner might have done when Theron’s first goal went in by way of Faulkner’s body. No one in either side “had a go” at the keepers, because the outfield players knew how much they owed them.
This was Faulkner’s coming-of-age performance. In the 13th minute, he came out and smothered the ball as winger Hector Araya worked his way clear at the edge of the penalty area. In the 22nd, he saved a George Andrew volley from six metres. In the 54th, Faulkner dived full-length to his left to palm away a low, hard shot from midfielder Olly Tilley. Three minutes later, he got down to his left to a shot from midfielder Nicky Land. Faulkner saved again in the 65th, and in the last five minutes he got down to a drive from sharpshooter Davie Ure.
Both Faulkner and Baple were quick off their lines, often reaching a through ball before the advancing strikers.
Baple’s willingness to come for high balls and his handling of them were features of his game. At other times he was simply in the right place. United striker Josh Adams was having a hard job finding space against double centrebacks Chris Spurr and Andrew. In the 53rd minute, he found enough to get away a pile-driver . . . straight at Baple, who had narrowed the angle. The same thing happened in the 76th.
Time and again, Baple got vital touches to crosses, and in the 64th minute he showed his agility by getting down and tipping a 25-metre drive by midfielder Dane Thompson past the post.
The pace and strike power of United’s Josh Harris and Adams brothers, Josh and Corey, were the big threats to Thistle. But the Jags defenders were up to the challenge.
Dominant in the air, sure on the groundAndrew was a revelation. Home on holiday from the Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has a football scholarship, he was dominant in the air and fast and sure on the ground. His positional play was excellent.
Alongside him, Spurr continued his run of outstanding form. He’s getting on now, but he was never embarrassed for pace, and his reading of the game was sound.
Leftback Ander Batarrita and rightback Daniel Venema defended stoutly and used the ball intelligently to start attacks from the back.
Perhaps the outfield “save” of the match came from Thistle central midfielder Tilley. In the 26th minute, Josh Adams was one-on-one with Daniel Venema, who delayed the striker long enough for Tilley to get back and tackle as Adams was about to shoot.
Not far behind was United sweeper Kieran Higham’s recovery tackle on Sam Patterson in the 74th, after Ure had put the substitute striker away.
Thistle’s midfield had Tilley mainly central, with Max Logan and Land shuffling between central and wide roles as required. Ure had a more attacking job but played behind Theron and Araya. Often the front two played wide left and wide right, leaving space in the middle to be filled late.
Logan never wasted a ball and Land never gave up on one, while Ure sprayed passes with laser-like accuracy.
United had Malcolm Marfell and Matt Adams as left and right fullbacks, with Mal Scammell and Higham as centrebacks in a capable back four.
Kieran Venema played a holding role in midfield, behind Thompson and Harris in the middle and Corey Adams and Izzy Whitley alternating on the left and right flanks.
Josh Adams was the main strike weapon, and had support from Harris, Corey Adams and Whitley, while Thompson was dangerous shooting from anywhere up to 30 metres out.
United's first-half passing was offUnited seemed to have trouble finding their rhythm. Their first-half passing was off, while Thistle played the more constructive football, often causing anxiety in the United defence with passes threaded between players for Theron and particularly Araya darting in from out wide.
Araya’s trickery down the left flank enabled him to get in the cross for Thistle’s first goal. Theron’s half-volley finish from six metres gave Faulkner little time to react.
Higham’s covering was important for United. His speed to the loose ball gave those around him the confidence to make the initial challenge.
The chance to take stockHalftime gave United the chance to take stock. Coach Corey Adams switched with Harris. It meant Adams was in the thick of things and Harris had more space to create his own brand of mayhem.
United had the better of the second half, Venema driving the effort from deep, and Harris and the Adams brothers probing for openings.
Thistle were organised, lucky and desperate to varying degrees in their defending. It worked until Corey Adams followed a ball out to the right and put in the cross for his team’s second goal.
Thistle comes back at UnitedRemarkably, Thistle came back at United, and Ure had two late shots at goal. One was saved; the other went wide.
For United, Stu Cranswick came on for Whitley in the 68th minute and Jack Feyen came on for Matt Adams in the 78th.
For Thistle, Patterson came on for Araya and Jake Robertson came on for Spurr in the 68th, Matias Rees came on for Theron in the 71st and Emerson Araya came on for Daniel Venema in the 85th.
Both coaches were upbeat afterwards.
Thistle’s Blair felt that, for the most part, his side played the better football.
“We knew they would try to go long, and if we stopped that we’d have a good chance,” he said.
Andrew was proving a “real asset” and had formed a good partnership with Spurr, Blair said.
He was also pleased with the depth off the bench.
United’s Corey Adams said his side were lucky to reach halftime only 2-1 down, but they showed heart to come back and dominate the second spell.
“It could have gone either way,” he said.
“It was a good game to be part of.”
Thistle had been strong in the middle of the park, but changes at halftime helped United turn it around.
“Jack Faulkner really stepped up and kept us in the game,” Adams said.
“We know what he can do but he hadn’t shown it to the extent he did today.
“Kieran Higham had a stormer, and Josh Harris and Kieran Venema also had strong games.”
Referee Antony Riley, of Palmerston North, controlled the game well and acted firmly on studs-up challenges.
Other results: Eskview United 4 Hastings Western Rangers 0, Havelock North Wanderers Seconds 3 Maycenvale United 1, Napier Marist 0 Napier City Rovers Seconds 2, Port Hill United 3 Taradale 1.