Soccer Thistle v Taradale.
Two players who answered the call to step up to a higher level of football played key roles for Gisborne United and Thistle on Saturday.
Jonathan Purcell and Brad Reynolds played at centreback for United and Thistle respectively in Pacific Premiership games.
Purcell normally plays for the Heavy Equipment Services United side that clinched the Eastern League Division 1 title the previous week.
On Saturday, he scored two goals in the United premiership team’s 4-1 victory over Havelock North Wanderers Seconds at Guthrie Park, Havelock North.
Purcell and fellow centreback Kieran Venema renewed an onfield partnership that flourished in schoolboy and junior representative football and looked as if it had never been interrupted.
Brad Reynolds has been a prolific goalscorer for Eastern League Division 2 team Thistle Vintage in recent years, but has also played plenty of football at the back. He has turned out for Division 1 side Thistle Massive when required and has also helped the first team.
He answered premiership coach Garrett Blair’s call for the game against Taradale, and did so well that Blair named Reynolds the Jags’ man of the match after their 3-0 win at Childers Road Reserve.
Weekend results increased the jostling near the top of the points table.
With three games to play, Napier City Rovers Seconds are only a win away from securing the title. They had a 3-0 away victory over Port Hill United, who slipped from second to fourth.
City Rovers have 38 points, then come Napier Marist, Gisborne United and Port Hill, in that order on goal difference and all on 30 points. Thistle are fifth, on 28.
The games for both Gisborne teams were affected by the wet, although the rain had largely stopped by the time United played their match on a subsidiary field at Guthrie Park.
Thistle and Taradale endured steady and at times heavy rain throughout their game.
Blair said his side’s experience probably gave them the edge in these conditions.
Even so, at halftime on Saturday — neither team having scored — he reminded the Jags to play the percentages and simplify things.
Within a minute of the restart, Thistle striker Jake Theron jinked his way from the edge of the penalty area to the right corner of the six-yard box and squeezed his shot into the far corner of the goal.
Thistle almost went further ahead in the 50th minute, when attacking midfielder Davie Ure rounded goalkeeper Graham Healey and shot towards the empty goal. However, rightback Jacques Markham had hared back to cover his keeper and cleared the danger.
Taradale stayed in the game without seriously threatening to score. In the 68th minute their task got tougher.
Jags striker Hector Araya ran on to a through-ball and directed his shot past Healey. The ball slowed on the wet grass, and centreback Liam Hall reached it just as it was crossing the line, but he could only turn it into the far-side netting . . . 2-0.
Thistle’s third goal was a nice piece of team play in the 88th minute. Defensive midfielder Olly Tilley found Araya near the left edge of the penalty area. Araya scurried to the byline and cut the ball back to Ure, waiting beyond the far post. He controlled and finished from 10 metres to complete the most clinical move of the match.
Ure could have added to his tally two minutes later when he made a run along the right-side byline and went down in a challenge. Referee Chris Niven awarded a penalty, Ure took it and Healey saved well.
Thistle coach Blair said he thought his side tried to overplay the game in the first half.
“In conditions like these, you have to play more of a long-ball game,” he said.
“At halftime, we talked about simplifying it.”
Blair was happy with the performance of keeper Mark Baple, who made two important saves in the first half, and his back four — fullbacks Max Mika on the right and Pablo Silva on the left, and centrebacks Chris Spurr and Reynolds.
The double-centrebacks had quickly formed a good partnership, and it was encouraging for the defence to keep a clean sheet.
Former Fijian international Eliki Ravosai had gone south for work, and Blair wanted to rest defenders Liam Ryan and Daniel Venema so they could shake off injury niggles ahead of Saturday’s derby against United.
Reynolds had helped out in a Chatham Cup game and he had shown he was well able to make the step up to Pacific Premiership level.
Taradale were without player-coach Ricky Foote and his younger brother Marc, both injured, and striker Jarred Coutts, who was unable to travel because of a school game.
Assistant coach Jamie Hall said he had a good group of youngsters, but they needed a big, strong centreforward.
“We had so many guys on the park under 18,” he said.
“Provided we can keep them encouraged, they will go really well for us. It is a tough league, and things just aren’t falling for us.”
His son Liam epitomised the team’s spirit. He had been sick all week but got on the bus to play on Saturday. He was one of three 16-year-olds in the Taradale back four, and one of his side’s top performers.
The other two 16-year-old defenders, leftback Adam Barron and rightback Markham, were both having their first start in the premiership team.
They and centreback Tim Jeffares did well to hold the Thistle attack at bay for so long.
Barron was particularly impressive, defending stubbornly and linking up well with left midfielder and Taradale man of the match Sam Skilton, who made some telling runs at the Thistle back four.
The best contest within a contest was in midfield. Skilton, Greg Jackson, Hamish Sim and Leon Tyrell had a tough time against Thistle’s Tilley, Ure, Nicky Land and Max Logan, but the Jags’ advantage did not come from any midfield dominance.
Rather, they had more penetration in the attacking third and took their chances better.
In Havelock North, Gisborne United went 1-0 down to a header from a left-wing corner after 10 minutes. A Havelock player met the ball about the penalty spot and headed it down strongly, so that it bounced up into the top left corner of the goal.
Ten minutes later, though, United were level. Player-coach Corey Adams was brought down in the box, and younger brother and lone striker Josh scored from the penalty.
United went ahead in the 35th minute, when a left-wing corner by Malcolm Marfell was parried by the keeper only as far as Purcell, who stabbed the ball home from four metres.
Ten minutes into the second half, Purcell celebrated his first start in the premiership with a second goal. Another left-wing corner found Purcell, who won the aerial contest and headed strongly into the bottom left corner.
In the 70th minute, central midfielder Dane Thompson completed the scoring. His shot from 15 metres was parried, but the ball sat up for Thompson to follow up and stroke into the goal.
“We could have scored seven or eight,” Corey Adams said.
“The ball was skidding . . . we played well in the conditions.”
He was especially pleased with wingers Marfell on the left and Martin Garnier on the right.
The back four of centrebacks Purcell and Venema, rightback Matt Adams and leftback Lucian Nickerson were solid, and it was good to have Jack Faulkner back in goal after injury.
Mal Scammell did well in his defensive midfield role, giving a sound base for Corey Adams and Thompson to get forward in support of Josh Adams.
Other Pacific Premiership results: Port Hill United 0 Napier City Rovers Seconds 3, Eskview United 2 Maycenvale United 0, Napier Marist 8 Hastings Western Rangers 0.