FOOTBALL
SEPTEMBER is football’s twilight month in Gisborne.
The games will still be competitive. Put two evenly matched teams on a pitch and watch things develop.
But the end of the season is near. Players’ thoughts turn to summer pursuits.
So it behoves any half-decent coach to give his players a verbal “clip round the ear” to make sure they’ve got their minds on the matter at hand — winning football matches.
Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United are the team with the biggest incentive to stay focused. On Saturday week (September 14) they play Massey University in the final of the Lotto Federation Cup, and they’ve been drawn to play the match at their home ground, Harry Barker Reserve.
It’s been a big year for the United club — the Pacific Premiership title, retention of the Challenge Cup, high-flying performances from their Gisborne Championship team, the Poverty Bay Cup knockout title for their Gisborne Conference side, and the league-and-cup double for the women’s team.
The Federation Cup — for Central Federation teams who didn’t enter the Chatham Cup — would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.
Last Saturday, local football interest was centred on cup matches — United’s 6-1 victory over Wanganui City (after extra time) in the Federation Cup semifinal, Carpet Court Thistle Massive’s 5-1 Chris Moore Cup final win against Lytton High School, and United women’s Braybrook Cup penalty shootout victory over Gisborne Laundry Services Riverina.
No Gisborne Championship Division 1 fixtures were played, but a couple of Division 2 matches went ahead, along with a full round of Conference games.
Thistle Vintage took the bare 11 to Wairoa to play Athletic on Saturday, and lost 3-2. But they opened the scoring when playmaking centreback Dave Watson curled in a left-wing corner that the Wairoa goalkeeper could not keep out.
Wairoa got the upper hand and by halftime had jumped out to a 3-1 lead.
Vintage made changes in the way they played for the second half, and both teams made and missed a lot of chances.
The ball didn’t fly from his boot into the goal; it sauntered . . .Twenty minutes from the end, Thistle midfielder Dave Raggett took the ball across the goal, just outside the penalty area, and shot with his “wrong” foot, his left. The ball didn’t fly from his boot into the goal; it sauntered, creeping in just inside the left-hand post. Nevertheless, it counted.
That was the signal for Thistle to pile on the pressure. In this they were hampered by an injury to one of their players, who stayed on the field because Vintage had no subs.
In the time available, Thistle could not breach their opponents’ defence, and Wairoa held on to win.
Both keepers made some exceptional saves. Thistle keeper Charlie Kapene was outstanding, as were outfielders Watson, Raggett and striker Shaun Leeper.
The result put Wairoa in second place, a point behind ShipWreck Bohemians and two points ahead of third-placed Vintage. Both those teams have played a game less than Wairoa.
This weekend, Wairoa get the chance to go to the top of the table . . . and win a cup. They play Bohemians at Anzac Park at 2.30pm. If they win, they will reclaim the Stassen-Bosman-Gillies Cup that Bohemians took from them in May.
The cup celebrates a friendly rivalry stretching back decades, to when Ernie Stassen and John Bosman were Wairoa players and then administrators, and Gillies brothers Iain and Archie plotted Wairoa’s downfall from north of the Wharerata Hills. They still recall the game in 1973 when the Thistle team they took through were “ambushed” and beaten 3-0 by a Wairoa side bolstered by English imports . . . a dirty trick indeed.
Players like Rodney Baxendale, Ian Gearey and Bob Langworthy made Wairoa genuine contenders in an Eastern League that included Hawke’s Bay teams. That early setback in Wairoa stiffened Thistle’s resolve and they won the league that year.
The senior Gillies brothers were among the patrons of the fledgling Bohemians club, and after the Bohs’ third team defaulted a game in Wairoa less than two hours before kick-off, the offer of a cup to be contested between the clubs seemed like a good peace offering. It is at stake on the holders’ home games.
Another interesting clash on Saturday will be the Division 1 match between Lytton High School and Thistle Massive at Lytton at 12.30pm. Lytton will want to improve on their Chris Moore Cup scoreline.
The Rectory game between Gisborne Boys’ High School and Coates Associates Wainui Demons could be close, but United should beat Sunshine Brewery Wainui Sharks at Wainui to keep the pressure on competition leaders Massive.