Thistle bow out of Chatham Cup

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

Penalty awarded in the 90th minute sinks Jags’ hopes

A 90th-minute penalty ended Gisborne Thistle’s Chatham Cup adventure with a 3-2 loss at McLennan Park, Papakura, yesterday.

The match looked headed for extra time when Papakura City mounted a dangerous-looking attack through the middle. Former Thistle midfielder Max Mika – seeking his first touch of the ball after being brought on a minute earlier – chased a pass played in behind the Jags’ back four.

Centreback Finn McAuley swept across from the right of Thistle’s defence to whip the ball away before Mika could push it ahead. But McAuley had knocked the ball across to the leftback spot, and the Papakura right winger was on him in a flash, nicking the ball and immediately hitting it across the face of the goal.

Goalkeeper Mitchell Stewart-Hill dived out and palmed the ball away, but a Papakura midfielder was favourite to reach the rebound first. Not if Nick Land could help it. He’d been up the field supporting a Thistle attack and was making his way back to a holding midfield position when the counter-attack developed. As McAuley was dispossessed, Land took off on a 30-metre sprint to cover the Papakura midfielder’s run. They converged on the loose ball almost together. Land was fractionally behind, and when the players collided the referee pointed to the penalty spot.

Papakura skipper Argyle Morling kept his composure and put his penalty kick into the bottom left corner of the goal. After three minutes of stoppage time, victory belonged to the home side.

Papakura play in Northern Region Football’s League One competition, which seems to be about the same level as the Pacific Premiership that Thistle used to play in. On Saturday’s evidence, Papakura would hold their own alongside the Jags in the Central Federation League.

The Jags did not come into this game fresh, though. They had a physically and emotionally draining 7-6 win against Napier City Rovers Reserves on Saturday. Papakura had no game at the weekend, and that could have been a telling factor in yesterday’s result.

Papakura led 1-0 a halftime, thanks to Munit Krishna’s first-time shot from eight metres out, level with the near post, from a right-wing corner. Both teams had enjoyed periods of dominance without being able to run the show completely.

Thistle equalised four minutes after the resumption. Leftback Ander Batarrita intercepted a pass out from the Papakura defence and fed striker Jimmy Somerton, who pushed the ball wide of a defender and finished with his right foot.

Less than 30 seconds after Papakura kicked off, they had regained the lead through Logan Dixon.

Five minutes later they almost went further ahead, but Morling’s shot was well saved by Stewart-Hill.

With 25 minutes to go, Thistle coach Garrett Blair took off winger Sam Royston and midfielder Ash McMillan and put on Campbell Hall and Davie Ure.

Three minutes later, the Jags equalised. Midfielder Dave Salmon took a left-wing corner and found centreback Cai Maclean beyond the far post. He headed the ball down into the goal area, where Ure turned it into the net.

McAuley made a goal-saving intervention in the 70th minute. Stewart-Hill had gone to the edge of the penalty area to cut out the immediate danger but the ball was still in play. McAuley had got back to cover and headed clear when the shot got past the goalkeeper.

Thistle made one more substitution – Andre Baple went on for Ander Batarrita in the 80th minute – but it was Papakura who scored the winning goal.

Jags coach Blair said the team deserved “massive credit” for the work they had put in during pre-season training. Their conditioning had paid off with two good performances in the space of four days.

“I thought we had done enough to earn the right to go into extra time,” he said.

“We play Palmerston North Marist in the Federation League on Saturday, and I’m hoping we’ll have Cory Thomson available. Matt McVey will need a few training sessions under his belt before we thrust him into first-team duty, and Cullen Spawforth is probably two to three weeks away from recovery from his knee injury.”

The team will travel by air to Wellington and drive north to Palmerston North, returning the same way.