HANDS OFF: Gisborne Thistle striker Tomek Frooms holds off the challenge of a Taradale player as he comes away with the ball. Thistle won this Pacific Premiership match 3-0. Pictures by Paul Rickard
Tomek Frooms found his scoring touch in spades on Saturday, and he can thank his teammates for making his hat-trick possible.
Gisborne Vehicle Testing Thistle beat Taradale 3-0 in Pacific Premiership football at Childers Road Reserve, Frooms scoring in the 31st, 33rd and 86th minutes. Each goal owed much to the work of teammates before Frooms, 19, stepped up to apply the finish.
At Park Island in Napier, Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United beat Napier Marist 1-0. Jarom Brouwer scored in the 60th minute, latching on to the rebound after the Marist goalkeeper parried his first shot. Josh Harris supplied the through ball.
Thank goodness social distancing is no longer required, because the grandstand at Childers Road Reserve should be packed for the derby on Saturday, when Gisborne Thistle and Gisborne United clash.
Both teams have had two wins from two games and show plenty of promise. It should be a thriller.
Thistle did not have it all their own way against Taradale. Less than a minute before the opening goal, the ball was driven across the Thistle goal from the right wing, at shin height between the last defender and goalkeeper Mark Baple. Centreback Daniel Venema — at the back post with a Taradale attacker behind him — flung out a leg and managed to take the pace off the ball. Baple still had to look sharp to prevent an own goal. It was a brave but necessary interception by Venema because the player beyond him was well placed to score.
Baple fired the ball downfield, play advanced into the Taradale half and keeper Graham Healey darted out of his penalty area to tackle Thistle right-flank marauder Sam Patterson. A Taradale defender was about to clear when Thistle striker Davie Ure arrived to suffocate the clearance. The ball broke free to Frooms 20 metres out and he calmly passed the ball into the net.
Two minutes later, left-flank midfielder Brandon Josling was through, one on one with the keeper. Healey parried again at the edge of the box, and Frooms was there again to pass into the empty goal.
Taradale coach Rick Foote and his assistant Jamie Hall brought a depleted but combative squad to Gisborne. Experienced centreback Regan Cameron was out and regular starter Jarred Coutts was restricted by a groin injury to a five-minute cameo at the end. But Foote was pleased with his team's effort.
“We played good football and created a lot of chances, particularly in the second half,” he said.
“At two goals down, we had to push on.
“Chris Bruin and his younger brother Matt did well as double centrebacks, and 15-year-old Thomas Hall (son of the assistant coach) made his Pacific Premiership debut, coming on in the second half. He's at Napier Boys' High School and has shown great strength in the past few months.”
Hall is a raw-boned youngster. He led with his shoulder in a midfield challenge with Thistle leftback Kuba Jerabek — who can make a decent tackle — and Jerabek was laid out as if he'd run into a goalpost.
Thistle coach Garrett Blair was thrilled that training-ground strategy and patterns of play had translated so well on to the park.
“We knew they'd be a good team,” he said.
“They recruit well and have a similar set-up to us.”
Blair was especially pleased with his back four, centrebacks Ander Batarrita and Venema, in particular.
“They're forming a good partnership, and Ander's leadership at the back keeps everyone going . . . we led from the back today,” Blair said.
Batarrita gave his usual calm, assured performance. He never wastes a ball. Even his first-time clearances land where they give opponents cause for concern.
Venema had an outstanding game. If he made any mistakes — and I'm struggling to think of any — he retrieved the situation before it caused damage. His tackling and interceptions were spot on, as was his reading of the play, and his distribution was flawless.
Jerabek and rightback Emerson Araya are a couple of tough nuts who can play a bit, too. No winger gets an easy ride against them.
But as tidy as Thistle's opponents have been so far, the level of speed and intensity will lift in the game against United. That knowledge should keep the Jags defenders from getting complacent.
Blair said training sessions in the week leading up to the game had included exercises where strikers Ure and Frooms could take turns as the deep-lying forward. Both performed the role well, so it made sense to mix it up. Thistle also worked on putting pressure on defenders who had the ball.
The first two goals on Saturday came as Frooms arrived on the scene late and fed on the scraps resulting from that pressure.
His third goal came from the penalty spot in the 86th minute, after Brandon Josling was brought down in the box.
Josling, Patterson and central midfielders Charlie Morris and skipper Nick Land all followed the instructions about putting pressure on the ball-carrier, and it won them a lot of possession.
Taradale mounted some promising raids but goalkeeper Baple was equal to everything they threw at him, thanks to his safe handling and astute positioning. His experience and ability to read the play were exemplified in the 76th minute when a Taradale attacker broke free and Baple was out of the penalty area smartly to belt the ball clear.
In the 75th minute, Andre Riley came on for Patterson, whose pace and whipped-in crosses had troubled the Taradale defence. Riley kept things moving up and down the right flank as Taradale tried everything to get a share of the points.
Their leftback, Ayden Jones, pushed into midfield and added bite out wide.
Keeper Healey, the Bruin brothers and rightback Kris Sweetapple generally coped well short-handed, while Nick De Maine and Steve Flude were fully committed to the central midfield tussle.
Up front, Matt Single and Shae Bauerfeind – son of former Napier City Rovers player and national under-19 representative Karl Bauerfeind – made runs and took on defenders but couldn't get close enough to strike decisively.
Taradale were in with a chance until the third goal, four minutes from time, made it safe for Thistle.
The game was keenly contested, and referee Andy Parker, of Tikokino, kept a lid on things when the challenges came flying in.
He showed the yellow card to Taradale's Matt Bruin for bringing down Nick Land when he was threatening to break clear in the 27th minute, and to Thistle's Josling for a tackle from behind in the 52nd.
In Napier, Gisborne United could have been five or six goals up at halftime if things had gone their way, coach Corey Adams said.
“Their keeper made a lot of good saves and we couldn't put the chances away,” he said.
Brouwer scored his goal in a foray from his central midfield position, where he replaced Harris, who was put up front in Brouwer's usual spot.
Adams made the swap to try to ease the workload on Harris's troublesome groin injury.
“I'm hoping he'll be fit for the Thistle game,” Adams said, adding that he'd like to give Harris time to properly get over the injury afterwards.
Brouwer is no stranger to the central midfield role, and a strength of his game in that position is his ability to burst into scoring positions from deep.
Harris looks at home up front, as well. He is fast, elusive and quick to spot openings for others.
Adams gave the man-of-the-match award to centreback Dane Thompson, who dominated in the air and tackled strongly.
“We were solid at the back . . . the whole back five — Seth Piper in goal, Campbell Hall on the right, Mal Scammell and Dane in the middle, Kieran Higham sweeping and Malcolm Marfell on the left.”
Skipper Kieran Venema sprayed passes from his holding midfield position to good effect, and Nico Sannevigo and James Bristow had half a game each in the middle of the park.
Alongside Harris up front was Josh Adams, who may be a week or two off match fitness but can never be discounted when he has the ball at feet anywhere up to 40 metres from goal.
It will be fascinating on Saturday to see how Thistle deal with the threat of the three Js – Josh Harris, Josh Adams and Jarom Brouwer.