North End form ‘worrying’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

GISBORNE Thistle haven't exactly been catching the breaks this year.

Having lost a substantial part of last season's first-team squad to the travel bug and other clubs, Thistle faced a rebuilding task in football's Central Federation League this year.

With two league games to go, their only returns so far have been a win and a draw. They sit at the bottom of the points table alongside Levin, who have exactly the same goals-for and goals-against totals. Last Saturday these two teams drew 1-1.

At Childers Road Reserve tomorrow ALH Gisborne Thistle play North End, a Palmerston North team who have struck a worrying vein of late-season form and sit fourth on the table. Last week they beat third-placed Massey University 6-0.

Two weeks before that they beat Levin 3-1 away, and the week before that they drew 1-1 with unbeaten league leaders Whanganui Athletic.

When Thistle and North End met in Palmerston North in May, the Jags went 2-0 down in the first 25 minutes and lost 4-0.

Thistle coach Garrett Blair reported that his side dominated much of the play but North End hurt them on the counter-attack.

North End are unlikely to underestimate Thistle. In August last year North End were sixth in the league and came to Gisborne looking to upend the Jags, who were third and had designs on a second-place finish (they finished fourth).

In nine minutes, Thistle were 2-0 down. But they fought back and won the game 4-3 when defender Ander Batarrita went on a run in the second minute of stoppage time and squeezed a shot between the keeper and the near post.

Claims by North End that Batarrita had used his arm in controlling the ball came to nothing and left them with a sense of grievance over the winning goal.

The league positions are reversed now, but teams have a habit of remembering what they consider to be past injustices, so Thistle should expect no slackening of effort from North End.

And North End have two players in the upper reaches of the golden boot competition for goalscoring. Thomas Bell is running fourth with seven goals and Lucian Armstrong is equal eighth with five.

Thistle's top two goalscorers are midfielder/striker Cullen Spawforth, with four, and skipper and centreback Ryan Anderson, with three.

Throughout the season, Thistle have given the impression that on a good day, with all their best players available, they could give any team in this league a run for their money.

At 2.30pm tomorrow, we'll see who has come through the fitness tests and rapid antigen testing fully functional, and sit back and watch the drama play out.

ALH Thistle Reserves have their last round-robin game in the Pacific Premiership tomorrow. They play Havelock North Wanderers Premiers at Guthrie Park, Havelock North.

Wanderers are fourth on 23 points and Thistle Reserves are last of eight teams, on four points.

After tomorrow, the teams have a top-four/bottom-four round that will give them three more games.