A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Gisborne Thistle lost 6-0 to Napier City Rovers Feds in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday and it wasn’t pretty.
Thistle are bottom of the Central Federation League, with three points from one win out of nine games in their 14-match league campaign.
ALH Thistle fell to goals in the fifth, 27th, 54th, 63rd, 82nd and 89th minutes at Bluewater Stadium, Park Island.
When Napier City Rovers played at Childers Road Reserve in April, Thistle beat them 3-2, having weathered a first-half storm before Jarom Brouwer scored a goal just before the break. It turned the game.
But on Saturday Thistle were without Brouwer, as well as Matt McVey, Alex Davies, Kuba Jerabek and Oska Smith.
Some of them are likely to be back for Saturday’s league game against third-placed Massey University in Gisborne.
The week after, on July 9, Thistle play Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United in a Central Federation Cup quarterfinal at Childers Road Reserve at 2pm. The earlier-than-usual kick-off allows for the possibility of extra time and penalties.
The game looms as the season highlight for both clubs. It was originally scheduled for June 6 but was postponed because the pitch was deemed too wet for play.
Thistle defender Daniel Venema will have to rely on training-ground efforts to press his case for a place in the quarterfinal. He will miss the Massey game after being sent off on Saturday for handball stopping a certain goal.
Thistle were 5-0 down with about three minutes to go when Venema flicked his left hand sideways to stop the ball on the goal-line. He started his walk to the sideline before the referee raised the red card.
It was an unfortunate end to the game for the Thistle rightback, who had battled gamely against a fast, dangerous left-winger who was one of City Rovers’ best performers. Venema had been booked a few minutes earlier for a rough challenge.
Thistle goalkeeper Mitchell Stewart-Hill dived to his left to block the penalty kick, and a follow-up shot hit the bar, but Napier scored in the melee that followed.
Thistle lined up with a back four of Daniel Venema, centrebacks Ryan Anderson and Kieran Venema, and leftback Ander Batarrita; holding midfielders Cullen Spawforth and Ash McMillan; attacking midfielder Cory Thomson; and frontrunners Travis White, Nick Land and Leo Maisey.
The first goal came from a move down Napier’s right flank, a cross to the far post and a pass back inside to a striker who sidefooted the ball first time into the net.
Thistle had a chance to equalise in the 15th minute. From just inside the Napier half on Thistle’s right flank, Kieran Venema hit a diagonal free-kick deep into the penalty area. Left-winger Maisey’s header back into the centre was controlled by striker Land, who struck a powerful left-footed shot on the turn. It was straight at the keeper, who needed to be sharp to get his hands to it.
In the 23rd minute, White was shown the yellow card for a foul on the Napier leftback, and two minutes later the Napier left-winger got to the byline and crossed low and hard, only to see a teammate turn the ball over the bar from almost point-blank range.
Napier’s second goal came after Stewart-Hill took a free-kick from the right edge of his penalty area. He kicked towards the middle of the pitch, where the ball was intercepted by a Napier player. The keeper sprinted back, arriving just in time to set himself in the middle of the goal and dive to his left as the ball whistled past and into the bottom corner from 25 metres out.
In the 30th, 35th and 42nd minutes Stewart-Hill deflected the ball over the bar in a one-on-one situation, made a close-range reaction save and dived full-length to tip a shot past the post.
The third goal came in the 54th minute, when the Napier rightback drifted wide on Maisey’s blind side and got a 10-metre start on him for his run into the penalty area to score.
The fourth goal came in the 63rd — a penalty for a tackle from behind by Anderson — and the fifth was an angular drive from the left following a sweeping move from the Napier right flank.
Sam Patterson came on for Spawforth in the 64th minute, Land dropped into midfield and Patterson went up front. Andre Riley came on for the injured Maisey in the 65th and Raydon Semmens came on for White in the 75th. Batarrita moved up to take White’s place on the left wing and Semmens went to leftback.
Despite the 6-0 scoreline, the freakish nature of some of the goals makes it hard to judge the defence. Anderson was strong in the tackle, Kieran Venema never flinched as the shots came in, and Stewart-Hill put the second goal behind him and never looked back.
Tighter marking in the defensive third, and support for the fullbacks from flank players wouldn’t go amiss. And players making runs from deep positions need to be tracked or picked up as they arrive. In possession, the passing has to be more accurate, for longer — Napier’s was consistently better.
But the match had some positive aspects for Thistle.
Spawforth put in a good shift after several weeks of injury recovery, and McMillan gave another wholehearted performance. Cory Thomson continued to develop in the attacking midfield role, and Nick Land showed he’d do to the best of his ability any job he was assigned.
The injection of some of those missing players could do wonders.