Hawke’s Bay football teams eyeing upsets over Gisborne big guns

They will try all sorts of ways to stop Gisborne Thistle goalscoring machine Jimmy Somerton, including fouls, which earned this Port Hill player a yellow card in their recent Eastern Premiership match. Photo / Paul Rickard

Gisborne teams Thistle and United face opponents who would like nothing better than to put a spanner in their works in Eastern Premiership football this weekend.

Port Hill and Maycenvale are mid-table teams who can struggle against the ordinary and trouble the best. As such, they bear watching closely.

Heavy Equipment Services United play Napier side Port Hill at Harry Barker Reserve at the early kick-off time of 12.30pm.

Electrinet Thistle play Maycenvale in Hastings at 3pm.

Jags coach Tam Cramer is without centre back Junior Jimmy, who is suspended for his red card last weekend, and – for a variety of reasons – Nick Land, Kuba Jerabek, Alex Shanks, Samson Hotas, Carlos Guerra and Ferdinand Suarez. Land, Jerabek and Hotas started last Saturday’s game against Gisborne United.

Cramer is confident Thistle have the players to win, but he may be light on the subs bench.

Gisborne United player-coach Josh Adams will still be without strikers Campbell Hall and Corey Adams, and central defender Kieran Higham, but United managed to cover the cracks well enough against Thistle last week.

Seasoned warhorse Stu Cranswick has answered the call, and is expected to start up front.

Dane Thompson was pressed into service in defence last week and performed admirably against league-leading goalscorer Jimmy Somerton. It will be interesting to see where he starts against Port Hill.

Thistle and United both have the quality to win this weekend, but they cannot afford to take their opponents lightly.

Interschool fixture drawn

Gisborne Boys’ High School opened their bid to qualify for the premier secondary schools national football tournament with a draw this week.

They drew 1-1 with Hastings Boys’ High School in an 80-minute game at the Gisborne Boys’ High School back field on Monday.

Gisborne Boys’ High led 1-0 at halftime and looked in control but Hastings used their height in key positions to good effect and scored a headed goal from a cross into the penalty area.

Gisborne coach Garrett Blair said the side played a 4-4-2 formation rather than the 4-3-3 set-up used since the start of the season, and the change worked well.

Matt Hills and Jacob Adams, the two central players in the midfield quartet, put in box-to-box efforts that ensured their Gisborne team dominated most of the open play.

“The draw felt a little bit like a loss because we dominated a large part of the first half and, but for a five-to-10-minute lull, most of the second half as well,” Blair said.

Gisborne Boys’ High opened the scoring in the 32nd minute, when striker Jonah King got on the end of a ball over the top of the defence, made ground towards the byline and squared the ball to Korbin Wigglesworth, who tapped it into the net.

The Hastings equaliser came eight minutes into the second half.

For Gisborne, Mako Fukushima Hall, Kauri Holmes, Shai Avni and Kyran Lasenby kept things solid in front of keeper Aiden Armstrong, while central midfielders Hills and Adams were well supported by flank players Wigglesworth and Xavier Priestley-Mennie.

Up front, LeRoy Hill played slightly deeper than King, to find space and draw a player out of the defensive line.

Boys’ High do not have Eastern Premiership games this weekend or next, as they prepare for a premier secondary schools tournament qualifier against Napier Boys’ High School, in Napier, on Wednesday, June 11.