Minute of madness

Gisborne Thistle defender Chris Spurr tackles Heavy Equipment Services United striker Josh Adams in a Pacific Premiership football derby at Harry Barker Reserve. A late penalty earned United a 2-1 win and lifted them to second on the table, five points behind Napier City Rovers reserves. Pictures by Paul Rickard

FOOTBALL

The best game of football in Gisborne this season was marred by a minute of madness at the end.

A last-minute penalty gave Gisborne United a 2-1 victory over Gisborne Thistle in Pacific Premiership football at Harry Barker Reserve on Saturday.

But when they should have been getting a standing ovation from a crowd treated to 90 minutes of non-stop action and drama, some of the players engaged in an unseemly scuffle in the middle of the pitch.

I didn’t see how it started and I don’t know the name of the spectator who ran on to the field to throw a punch, but it was a deflating, saddening way to end the afternoon.

As supporters headed home, the clink of boxed empties in their ears, it was disappointing to see rancour between opponents leaving the field. After the hour and a half of full-blooded commitment we had just witnessed, mutual respect seemed more appropriate.

The lead-up to the scuffle was charged with emotion.

Thistle goalkeeper Mark Baple and central defenders Chris Spurr and Liam Ryan were performing miracles to order. Every time United looked likely to score, one or more of this trio got a block, a tackle, a fist or a foot to the ball. And United missed the target more often than was comfortable for their fans.

But United’s line-up bristles with threats to any defence, and in the 90th minute Eastern League team striker Stu Cranswick burst into the penalty area. One of the Jags players in pursuit had a “nibble” at the ball from behind and to the side; Cranswick charged on. Then the chaser had another nibble, and Cranswick went down . . . penalty.

United skipper Kieran Venema handled the pressure, scoring with a perfectly placed kick, and the onfield celebrations erupted.

Baple retrieved the ball and, seeing that United goalkeeper Jack Faulkner had come deep into the Thistle half, he rushed to the centrespot, presumably to take the kick-off and try to score with the keeper out of position.

Panama tried the same thing against England at the World Cup, and it was explained later that the laws of the game say that all players, except the player taking the kick, must be in their own half for a kick-off. So it was not likely to have worked, but a bit of pushing and shoving developed as United tried to stymie Baple’s attempts at a quick restart.

Then the final whistle went, people in the grandstand stood up and, while my view was obscured, the scuffle kicked off.

It was hard to tell who was fighting, who was trying to break it up and who was just bemused.

But I’d wager the tipping point was when someone felt they were shown disrespect. Whether it was a gloating remark or gesture from a United player, or a resentful barb from one of the Jags, someone would have felt their honour besmirched . . . and then it would have been all on.

Central Football Poverty Bay operations manager Neil Aitkenhead said the process in cases like this was that the referee would make a report to the manager of the league, Darren Mason, of Hawke’s Bay, and any action would follow that.