Football: Second-half slumps costing Whanganui Athletic in Central League season

Support for the club remains "unbelievable", Matt Calvert says. Photo / Karen Hughes

Whanganui Athletic went down 7-1 to Western Suburbs FC last weekend, but the final result doesn’t tell the full story.

However, one striking statistic does.

Athletic player-coach Matt Calvert said the team had scored eight goals to the opposition’s nine in the first half of the season’s first seven games.

“If games finished at halftime, which they don’t, we’d have six points on the board,” he said.

“In second halves we’ve scored one and conceded 24.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out where we’re lacking at the moment.”

The first 50 minutes of the Western Suburbs game had been evenly matched but in the blink of an eye, the score went from 1-1 to 4-1, he said.

At Central League level, when you gave a team an inch they took a yard.

“We seem to run out of ideas in the second half and then we get overawed. That doesn’t paint a true picture of how things are going.

“Their [Western Suburbs] management came up to us after the game and said they were very fortunate to get that result.

“Everyone is saying really nice things about us, which I’m kind of sick of now. I want people to congratulate us on getting a win.”

Support at games remained “unbelievable”, Calvert said.

Many people made the trip to Porirua for last weekend’s game.

“Those are the ones that come up to us after a game and are gutted for us, but say ‘what a fantastic team you played against’.

“They have a proper opinion. They’re not just looking at social media.”

Despite moments of frustration, the team was still giving everything it had and no one was “throwing the towel in” during games.

Calvert said four bench players from Sunday’s game had turned out for the Whanganui Athletic Reserves the day before.

The squad had massive depth at the start of the season, but things had changed.

“There have been injuries and a couple of imports, Renzo [Talavera] and Sebastian [Scamarone], have moved on.

“I think we’re six-seven down from when we started. That really is a lot.”

Regardless, the club had to move forward, with players that would give everything for the shirt and not think about their egos, he said.

Following this weekend’s bye, Miramar Rangers is next on the agenda.

“We’re allowing players to take a little bit of stock, reflect on what’s happening, and come into next week nice and fresh.

“If anyone had expectations at the start of the year that we’d be pushing towards playoffs and the top four, to be honest, I think they were in absolute cuckoo land.

“In my opinion, the first two years after promotion is about consolidating yourself in that league and staying there. As far as I’m concerned, ninth or up is a good season for us.

While the club was now in a “relegation scrap”, he looked forward to the battle over the next 11 weeks.

“We have to keep being hungry to get that win under our belts and to get the points,” Calvert said.

“Regardless of what’s happened in the first seven weeks, we want to be in the Central League.”