“We were probably a bit wasteful at times, giving away the ball when the simple passes were on.
“At 2-1 we were still definitely in the game. It seems like we get ourselves into the match and concede five minutes later.
“We have to stay switched on.
“We talked about coming out and playing from the first whistle, and the boys did that really well.
“To keep a clean sheet until halftime and play the better football . . . I thought it would be our day. It seems like we always fall a bit short.
“I can’t fault the boys. They kept battling and fought their way back into the game at 3-2 . . . five more minutes and they might have sneaked another one in.”
Thistle opened the scoring in the 47th minute. Kieran Venema launched a free-kick from just inside the Napier Marist half, wide on the right, deep into the penalty area.
Thistle skipper Ryan Anderson, up from centreback, rose high at the far post and nodded the ball down, and Cory Thomson — 17 at the end of this month — stabbed the ball home from close range.
Four minutes later, Marist attacked down their right flank and striker Liam Percy-Fysh swept the ball across to the other wing, where 17-year-old midfielder Aidan Kirby-Vaughan was lurking unmarked. His first-time, left-footed sidefoot finish was in the net before anyone could close him down.
In the 72nd minute, Marist took the lead. Thistle lost the ball in midfield in their half. It was played in to Percy-Fysh, who moved left and fired a left-footed shot into the far corner . . . 2-1.
Seven minutes later Percy-Fysh struck again. The ball was played from midfield in behind the Jags defence and the striker got his foot to the ball just before Thistle goalkeeper Mark Baple arrived.
But his touch took the ball well wide of the goal and towards the byline. His first-time, left-footed strike was deadly accurate. Nothing less would have done.
Thistle fought on bravely. An 89th-minute Alex Davies right-wing corner was punched onwards by Marist keeper Alex Schroder and collected on the other side of the penalty area by striker Jarom Brouwer. He sent over an inviting cross that Anderson finished with a strong header from the edge of the goal area (six-yard box). In his eagerness to get the ball back to the centre circle, Anderson pushed a Marist player over and was shown the yellow card.
Thistle had one more chance to get a share of the points. In the 90th minute, Travis White moved on to a Brouwer cutback and with the outside of his right foot clipped the ball just wide of the far post. It was the kind of confident, instinctive play that could serve him well in the weeks ahead.
Napier Marist coach Brett Angell said it was a hard-fought game.
“The result was the main thing for us,” he said.
“I don’t think the performance was as good as we wanted but we dug in and showed a bit of fortitude. We’ve come up with a way to win the game.”
In their past four games, Marist have taken seven of the 12 points available, and three of those games were against the top three teams on the competition table. Yet they remain in sixth place, just one ahead of Thistle but with 10 points more.
The two goals scored by Percy-Fysh took him into second place in the league golden boot goalscoring competition, with 10 goals — one behind the tally of Palmerston North Marist’s Melvin Rumere.
Saturday’s game was one of those where the aesthetics of the game had to give way to the practicalities.
The ball bounced all over the place on the bumpy pitch, and the softness caused by the week’s rain drained the energy from players’ legs.
Baple had another good game in goal for Thistle, coming out to nip breakaway attacks in the bud and narrowing the target in one-on-one contests.
The back four had Alex Davies and Andre Riley at right and leftback respectively, and Daniel Venema and Anderson as double centrebacks.
Kieran Venema and Ash McMillan were the holding midfielders, with Cory Thomson as the attacking linkman.
Up front, Sam Patterson, White and Brouwer had the job of trying to break down the Marist defence.
That was no easy task. Schroder is a good all-round keeper, while centrebacks Bailey Hunt and skipper Yeshnil Naiker are imposing types who were quick to intercept ball in to the attackers.
Fullbacks Reuben Moffitt, on the right, and Jonty Underhill were nippy in defence and keen to start attacks.
But it was in midfield that Marist really shone. Seb Bayliss, Liam Alexander, Kirby-Vaughan and Ayden Jones had ball skills, quick feet and a healthy work ethic.
With Ethan Clarke coming back from his frontrunning role to help, Marist had the numbers in the midfield battle.
Kieran Venema tried to bypass the traffic by hitting diagonal crossfield balls, and sometimes they came off, but Marist were usually able to shuffle across to adjust to the new angle of attack.
McMillan and Thomson did a lot of good work contesting possession in midfield, but Thomson paid for it with the aggravation of an old injury.
Patterson, too, had to come off injured after going over on his left ankle. An X-ray was on the cards to determine the extent of the damage. He has had more than his share of injuries in the past few years.
Referee Chris Niven showed the yellow card to Thistle’s Daniel Venema and Anderson, and sin-binned White for 10 minutes from the 58th for dissent.
He also showed the yellow card to Marist’s Alexander.
