Tough weekend for Jags

Role change: Gisborne Thistle’s Sam Patterson (right, in action against Levin) gave a man-of-the-match performance in defence on Saturday. Picture by Paul Rickard

Gisborne Thistle's two travelling teams lost on Saturday, despite showing promise on attack.

At Memorial Park in Palmerston North, ALH Gisborne Thistle lost 4-0 to North End after going 2-0 down in the first 25 minutes of their Central Federation League game.

In Hawke's Bay, ALH Thistle Reserves were 2-0 down to Taradale at halftime but staged a second-half comeback to stem the flow of goals and threaten the goal at the other end in their Pacific Premiership match.

Both teams now lie seventh out of eight teams in their leagues.

The first team found themselves two goals down after showing early promise and producing a shot that hit the post.

Head coach Garrett Blair said that despite the scoreline, he was pleased with the way the team played.

“It was a completely different performance from the previous week's game against Levin,” he said.

“It was a 180-degree turnaround in terms of culture, drive and desire.

“When teams start scoring goals against you, it's easy to drop your head. On Saturday we kept fighting. The boys battled and kept it positive.

“North End are a very good team — well structured and well coached. I wouldn't be surprised if they were pushing Whanganui for the title at the end of the season.”

Blair said that midfielder Ash McMillan put in a good shift, breaking up a lot of North End's attacking moves before they threatened the goal.

Sam Patterson gave a man-of-the-match performance at right-wingback and rightback.

“They're not his natural positions but he played exceptionally well there,” Blair said.

Leo Maisey's pace and skill up front gave Thistle an edge that on another day might have shown in the scoreline, he said.

Attacking midfielder Matt McVey created a lot and broke up many North End attacks before they got going.

“They sat quite deep, and Matt forced them to play long, which allowed us to regain possession,” Blair said.

Thistle dominated much of the play but North End hurt them on the counter-attack.

“They caught us on the break three times and were fortunate to score from those chances,” Blair said.

The Reserves were punished for first-half mistakes in defence that left them trailing 2-0 at halftime. Taradale scored in the 15th minute and just before the break.

But Thistle improved markedly in the second half and were unlucky not to score.

Player-coach Craig Stirton said that leftback Levi Julies and holding midfielder Reece Brew were outstanding for the Jags.

Julies showed bags of composure on the ball and strength in the tackle, while Brew created a buffer zone in front of the defence and settled things, getting the ball down and releasing it early to the players around him.

To Brew's right, Alex Shanks patrolled the flank effectively, pressing when he needed to, tracking back to help out the defence and knocking in some tempting crosses on attack.

In central midfield, Cory Thomson battled throughout and showed no sign of the injury that had curtailed his appearances in recent weeks.

As a whole, the defence took a while to settle, but came into their own in the second half.

Julies, centrebacks Brad Hill and Tim Hofman, and leftback Gee Gaurav gave their opponents little room to move in the second half, and goalkeeper Tom Talbot made some saves that kept Thistle in the hunt.

At the other end, strikers Travis White and Davie Ure did their best to rustle up chances, but pickings were scarce. Ure made frequent forays back into his own half, both to help out and to pick up the ball in space.

On Saturday, Thistle Reserves have a challenging home game against third-placed Port Hill, who beat them 5-2 in Napier in the first league game of the season.

The Jags' Federation League team have a tough assignment, too — away to Massey University, who are third on the table and well placed to be in contention for end-of-season honours.

Then on Monday, the first team go up against Gisborne United in a Central Federation Cup quarterfinal at Childers Road Reserve.