TAKING AIM: Gisborne Thistle striker Tomek Frooms gets his shot away against Western Rangers at Childers Road Reserve on Saturday.
Four goals, four scorers . . . Gisborne Thistle coach Garrett Blair was well pleased with a 4-1 win on Saturday.
It came in Thistle's first game of their pandemic-delayed Pacific Premiership campaign, against Hastings team Western Rangers at Childers Road Reserve.
And it was done in style. Both sides played smart, brisk, passing football that entertained.
Thistle deserved to win because they shaded their Hawke's Bay opponents in overall team performance and had some outstanding individuals.
Veteran Davie Ure makes the role of deep-lying striker an art form and he was instrumental in many of Thistle's most dangerous attacks. He scored Thistle's first goal off a move he started. With luck, he could have had a hat-trick.
English import Brandon Josling is in his second season with Thistle and patrolled the left flank, occasionally moving infield to good effect. On one such foray, he made an angular run into the goalmouth to meet Sam Patterson's cross at the near post with a deft head-flick that took the ball into the far corner to make it 2-0.
I thought Patterson was having a quiet game on the right flank until I checked my notes and saw he'd supplied the crosses for Thistle's two goals. Then I looked up and he scored the third. He also had a hand in the fourth. Maybe not so quiet.
In central midfield, skipper Nick Land was being Nick Land – working, making challenges, helping in defence, feeding the attack, and supplying the finish for the best move of the game and the only goal of the second half.
Not on the scoresheet but doing plenty nevertheless, was 19-year-old striker Tomek Frooms. A Londoner, he attended the Crystal Palace academy from the time he was eight till he was 15, then had a spell with AFC Wimbledon.
He was put in touch with Thistle by Pulse football academy director Paul Seaman, who has helped bring would-be professional footballers to New Zealand and arranged UK tours by teams of Kiwi youngsters seeking experience of the professional football world.
Frooms is small, skilful and elusive. He twists and turns his way out of tight spaces and is prepared to shoot early. On Saturday some of his shooting was a tad optimistic, perhaps because he wanted to impress on his first league outing and was keen to get on the scoresheet. If he keeps performing like this, the goals will come.
Thistle's defence was built around a solid core of goalkeeper Mark Baple and centrebacks Daniel Venema and Ander Batarrita. Baple was not called on for anything miraculous but his command of the penalty area gave the defence confidence. Venema and Batarrita were sound under pressure, while leftback Kuba Jerabek and rightback Emerson Araya defended well and ventured forward when they could.
Central midfielder Ashley McMillan played for Gisborne Boys' High School last year and in his Pacific Premiership debut on Saturday gave a good account of himself. He, Venema, Patterson, Araya and Josling came off during the second half to give UK import Charlie Morris, Janai Randall, Travis White, Andre Riley and Merlin Parsons a run. This year, Pacific Premiership teams are allowed to use all five of their reserves in a game.
Thistle scored in the 13th, 33rd, 36th and 67th minutes. For the first, Ure passed to Patterson then sprinted into the penalty area and met the cut-back with a first-time shot from 12 metres; Josling headed in Patterson's cross for the second; Patterson broke away, chopped inside a pursuing player and slotted the ball in the corner for the third; and Patterson and Araya exchanged passes on the right before the ball was crossed and Ure dummied to hit it, leaving Land to score with a first-time shot from 15 metres.
Western Rangers got their goal in the 38th minute from the penalty spot, through striker Martin Zuquetti, who was adjudged to have been fouled by Venema.
Rangers' best were keeper Scotty Helson, centrebacks Thomas (TJ) Hinde and Anthony Baker, central midfielders Dale Simpson and Morgan Samuels, and strikers Zuquetti, Luke Morgan and Cory Janssen.
Thistle coach Blair was pleased to have a winning start. Early-season hiccups had cost his side in the past. He thought everyone played well but he singled out Frooms, Patterson, Land, Batarrita and Ure for special mention.
With midfielder Max Logan still to come into the squad, the signs were promising.
Rangers coach Grant Hastings, father of former Thistle coach Matt Hastings, is in his second year with the club and was pleased his team tried to play good football.
A player with Manurewa, Hamilton and Cambridge, Hastings coached Napier City Rovers for four years before linking up five years ago with Hastings Boys' High School, where he is technical director of football. He and his wife Jenni, who was also here on Saturday, run a sports coaching business, GJ Training.
“We brought only 13 up to Gisborne,” Grant Hastings said.
“Two or three couldn't travel, but we always have a pretty thin squad.”
The match was well controlled by referee Chris Niven.