Tyler wrote: I watched a few games there last year and really enjoyed it. Will be interested to see if the community get out and support the team.
You'd hope so. First team in CL there since Team Taranki back in like 2018 or something. Nice that they've basically got two years at least of Central League football to look forward to (probably more as they'll be competing against other CL2 teams next year for safety)
FC Western 0 - 4 Wellington Olympic 20260419_123855.jpg1.36 MB Left after about 70 minutes because there was weather coming in off the coast and now it's just a big booming thunderstorm which would be skirting the ground, so I did miss the last couple of goals from Olympic.
Thoughts.
• Pitch held up really well given the weather we've had this week, ball zipped along nicely which was good for the spectacle at least.
• First half hour or so before the first goal was very scrappy, with no real chances of note either way, but with the lions share of the ball being played in the Western defensive half. To their credit Western did make it hard for Olympic to find space, and their defensive shape was quite narrow which forced Olympic into wide areas which didn't really bear any fruit for them.
• Olympic went bang, bang before halftime which made Western heads drop a bit, especially after they scrapped well for the first half hour or so. First was a shot from the edge of the area after finding a bit of space - Not the cleanest hit, but it found the bottom corner. Second was from a penalty given away by Junior Agyekum - Who, despite the challenge, was actually was quite good for the New Plymouth side. He looks a bloody big unit too! Looked to be playing as a #6 and tried to get on the ball. Good touch and awareness of what's around him as well. Was his first game for the club, so hopefully he can help drive the team forward over the coming weeks.
• Chances few and far between up top for Western right up until I left. Adrian Gashi was working hard out wide and tried to make things difficult for Olympic but he was well marshalled. Looks to be a skillful player if he can get some support around him though. Otherwise, we're a fairly limited side.
Game went pretty much as expected. Good to see a decent crowd around the clubrooms and scattered around the sidelines too - I'm shit with estimates, but the carpark and sidestreets around the ground were full, and maybe 300+ dotted around the ground (predominantly around clubrooms).
Karori and then IBU up in the next couple of weeks, which will probably be a fairer mark of where the club stands. Would love to see us grab a goal or two as well!
Safe travels back to Wellington for the Olympic lads. If they're flying hopefully they get out before the weather coming in over town now sets in.
YoungHeartHM wrote: Safe travels back to Wellington for the Olympic lads. If they're flying hopefully they get out before the weather coming in over town now sets in.
Off topic a bit here, but jeez, they might have been better off staying in New Plymouth after watching what's happened overnight down there. 😳
Here's hoping that life and property isn't impacted for anyone around these parts. 🙏
Wakefield Park looks like it got absolutely nailed from some of the videos I've seen online too.
Noah4thenix wrote: I do think Western have gotten a little unlucky with the draw early on tbf
Western Suburbs and Olympic aren't exactly easy oponents to be handed right after being promoted
Apparently they couldn't play at home for the first three weeks as the ground also doubles as a cricket pitch. I live just over the road from another football ground that doubles as a cricket field and I haven't seen anyone playing cricket in the region for almost a month now! So I don't know how true that all is, but it's just what I've heard.
As for opposition, well it is what it is. In my opinion it's probably better for a club like Western to face the stronger sides early on in the season before sides really come together and hit their straps after a good 5-6 weeks.
For me the best game is Karori vs FC Western. Big game at the bottom of the table.
Wests vs Upper Hutt Miramar vs Petone Olympic vs IBU
Napier vs Phoenix another interesting match
Sunday defo the game of the round. who do the Phoenix bring up the highway to take on a strong looking Rovers outfit? should be a cracker - no issues with weather
For me the best game is Karori vs FC Western. Big game at the bottom of the table.
Wests vs Upper Hutt Miramar vs Petone Olympic vs IBU
Napier vs Phoenix another interesting match
Just hoping for FC Western to keep improving, but I have no expectations result wise.
If anyone heads down to watch the game I'd love to read back on how they went. Particularly interested in hearing how our new midfield recruit Junior Agyekum get's on.
For me the best game is Karori vs FC Western. Big game at the bottom of the table.
Wests vs Upper Hutt Miramar vs Petone Olympic vs IBU
Napier vs Phoenix another interesting match
Just hoping for FC Western to keep improving, but I have no expectations result wise.
If anyone heads down to watch the game I'd love to read back on how they went. Particularly interested in hearing how our new midfield recruit Junior Agyekum get's on.
He didn't seem that impressive today to my untrained eye, but it was a pretty lacklustre performance from FC Western imo. Bryn Kearton did well at wingback, came flying in to make a very important block before having one of Western's best chances not long later. Some young talent from the Taranaki in that squad like Marsden or Cumberledge, just need to iron out the mistakes.
Despite their win, Karori probably didn't capitalise on their advantage as much as they could have. Oscar Crowe was playing well, Alvarado has quality but was mostly shut down by FC Western's defence.
For me the best game is Karori vs FC Western. Big game at the bottom of the table.
Wests vs Upper Hutt Miramar vs Petone Olympic vs IBU
Napier vs Phoenix another interesting match
Just hoping for FC Western to keep improving, but I have no expectations result wise.
If anyone heads down to watch the game I'd love to read back on how they went. Particularly interested in hearing how our new midfield recruit Junior Agyekum get's on.
He didn't seem that impressive today to my untrained eye, but it was a pretty lacklustre performance from FC Western imo. Bryn Kearton did well at wingback, came flying in to make a very important block before having one of Western's best chances not long later. Some young talent from the Taranaki in that squad like Marsden or Cumberledge, just need to iron out the mistakes.
Despite their win, Karori probably didn't capitalise on their advantage as much as they could have. Oscar Crowe was playing well, Alvarado has quality but was mostly shut down by FC Western's defence.
Only watched the first half but thought Karori looked quite a bit better than Western. Western looked organised but didn’t look like scoring. Number 6 for Western probably the stand out for them
Western Suburbs vs Nix Reserves Suburbs starting this season very well, were unlucky in their one loss to date, but might depend on what Nix players drop down as always. Think Wests should have enough to get over the line either way.
Petone vs Napier City Rovers Petone starting to find their groove, a tough loss to a very strong Miramar side last week, lots of good young players in their squad. Rovers will be looking ot really cement themselves in the title fight this year. Predicting a tight Rovers win away.
Waterside Karori vs Miramar Rangers Wharf with their first win of the season last week, looked like a bit of a close battle, they could struggle slightly this year. Miramar looking stronger and. stronger every week. Miramar to win this one comfortably.
Upper Hutt City vs Wellington Olympic Olympic looking to put together a string of good performances now, may of just been adjusting to post-Ifill life at the start of this season. A hot start from Upper Hutt has stalled slightly over last two weeks. Albeit against two of the top teams this year. Olympic to get the win here.
FC Western vs Island Bay United FC Western looking like their slowly getting up to pace, Island Bay with a mixed bag of results, their only win has come up against a poor Wharfies team at the start of the season. Expecting a tight game. Combine the long drive with Lynmouth Park, I'm going for a draw in this one.
Diplomatically I would say defences were on top, more honestly I'd call this game a bit of a fizzer.
Petone competitive enough first half and would've been satisfied with their first half performance, but they were very few chances either way. Then they came out of the sheds sluggishly, Napier dominated the first 20 mins of the second half, bagged a goal through Callum Cooke and then managed the game pretty well from there.
Petone threw what they had at them, were good from crosses but only created 1-2 clear-cut opportunities, however Napiers defence were defo on top, nearly always made the right decision, Schofield, Albertini, Emerson, Barclay all among the best on the park. Tonning was good but honestly didn't have a lot to do.
Petone were competitive for most of the match and certainly weren't bad keeping in mind Napier are a contender in this league... but they were pretty poor on attack. Ta Eh Doe with the main creativity in the midfield, Daler Tokhirov worked hard off the bench but struggled to stay onside, however in general they just were not in sync and only created from a few hopeful crosses.
Disappointing for Petone, and a forgettable job done type performance for Napier.
A bit awkward after the game when Napier striker Leo Brown (who had been subbed off) felt the need to celebrate very loudly in front of the Petone fans... seemed he had been getting a bit of stick during the game but still a little bizarre especially as his teammates were just walking off the pitch.
Western Suburbs vs Nix Reserves Suburbs starting this season very well, were unlucky in their one loss to date, but might depend on what Nix players drop down as always. Think Wests should have enough to get over the line either way.
Petone vs Napier City Rovers Petone starting to find their groove, a tough loss to a very strong Miramar side last week, lots of good young players in their squad. Rovers will be looking ot really cement themselves in the title fight this year. Predicting a tight Rovers win away.
Waterside Karori vs Miramar Rangers Wharf with their first win of the season last week, looked like a bit of a close battle, they could struggle slightly this year. Miramar looking stronger and. stronger every week. Miramar to win this one comfortably.
Upper Hutt City vs Wellington Olympic Olympic looking to put together a string of good performances now, may of just been adjusting to post-Ifill life at the start of this season. A hot start from Upper Hutt has stalled slightly over last two weeks. Albeit against two of the top teams this year. Olympic to get the win here.
FC Western vs Island Bay United FC Western looking like their slowly getting up to pace, Island Bay with a mixed bag of results, their only win has come up against a poor Wharfies team at the start of the season. Expecting a tight game. Combine the long drive with Lynmouth Park, I'm going for a draw in this one.
Western Suburbs vs Nix Reserves Suburbs starting this season very well, were unlucky in their one loss to date, but might depend on what Nix players drop down as always. Think Wests should have enough to get over the line either way.
Petone vs Napier City Rovers Petone starting to find their groove, a tough loss to a very strong Miramar side last week, lots of good young players in their squad. Rovers will be looking ot really cement themselves in the title fight this year. Predicting a tight Rovers win away.
Waterside Karori vs Miramar Rangers Wharf with their first win of the season last week, looked like a bit of a close battle, they could struggle slightly this year. Miramar looking stronger and. stronger every week. Miramar to win this one comfortably.
Upper Hutt City vs Wellington Olympic Olympic looking to put together a string of good performances now, may of just been adjusting to post-Ifill life at the start of this season. A hot start from Upper Hutt has stalled slightly over last two weeks. Albeit against two of the top teams this year. Olympic to get the win here.
FC Western vs Island Bay United FC Western looking like their slowly getting up to pace, Island Bay with a mixed bag of results, their only win has come up against a poor Wharfies team at the start of the season. Expecting a tight game. Combine the long drive with Lynmouth Park, I'm going for a draw in this one.
Got them all right so far!
Good luck on getting the last one.
IBU 4-0 up after half an hour and it's been a bloodbath. Western not at the races today, and it could get worse.
Western Suburbs vs Nix Reserves Suburbs starting this season very well, were unlucky in their one loss to date, but might depend on what Nix players drop down as always. Think Wests should have enough to get over the line either way.
Petone vs Napier City Rovers Petone starting to find their groove, a tough loss to a very strong Miramar side last week, lots of good young players in their squad. Rovers will be looking ot really cement themselves in the title fight this year. Predicting a tight Rovers win away.
Waterside Karori vs Miramar Rangers Wharf with their first win of the season last week, looked like a bit of a close battle, they could struggle slightly this year. Miramar looking stronger and. stronger every week. Miramar to win this one comfortably.
Upper Hutt City vs Wellington Olympic Olympic looking to put together a string of good performances now, may of just been adjusting to post-Ifill life at the start of this season. A hot start from Upper Hutt has stalled slightly over last two weeks. Albeit against two of the top teams this year. Olympic to get the win here.
FC Western vs Island Bay United FC Western looking like their slowly getting up to pace, Island Bay with a mixed bag of results, their only win has come up against a poor Wharfies team at the start of the season. Expecting a tight game. Combine the long drive with Lynmouth Park, I'm going for a draw in this one.
Got them all right so far!
Good luck on getting the last one.
IBU 4-0 up after half an hour and it's been a bloodbath. Western not at the races today, and it could get worse.
Another penalty just been awarded to IBU as well.
Edit | 5-0...
I'll take 4/5, exptected a bit more from FC Western at home.
So did I... Really disappointing effort so far to be honest.
Even though we've lost every game so far we've at least been competitive - Not necessarily with the upper hand, but we've scrapped and fought.
Today has been awful though. No scrap, no fighting for the second balls and just making it hard on ourselves through poor decision making, erroneous passing and mistimed challenges.
Missed the first goal, but that was the only one from open play apparently.
2-0 & 3-0 were free kicks swung in from the left and just piss poor defending on both occasions let's IBU get a free header to it both times.
4-0 & 5-0 were both penalties. First penalty Bryn Kearton (who I think has been pretty good otherwise) scythed down Mitchener. Not sure what the second penalty was for exactly as no one went down in the box, but can only assume it was a shirt pull (?) otherwise it seemed like an odd decision.
Better effort that second half from Western, but in reality it was over at H/T.
Not many highlights from the second stanza, with only a few real efforts/attempts on goal from either side. Lot's of changes rung in earlyish in the 2nd half, so a lot of the sting went out of the game from about the hour mark.
Next up for Western - Miramar next week. 🥲
Result aside, several beers while watching footy on a Sunday is always a day well spent. 😄
This has been disheartening. Central League 2 doesn't really hold as much weight since it's first promoted club is getting trampled. On the brightside there's no relegation but still
Noah4thenix wrote: This has been disheartening. Central League 2 doesn't really hold as much weight since it's first promoted club is getting trampled. On the brightside there's no relegation but still
There's still a generally positive beat around the club and on the sidelines to be honest. The club knew they were going to be up against it, and you can see it in the play as well. Some of these younger guys are on a very steep learning curve - that extra touch on the ball or ½ a second of indecesiveness costs you at this level. You could get away with it in CL2, but not in the Central League.
The other side of the coin is that there is no relegation this season, so going ahead giving these young guys an opportunity to play at this level is really an invaluable experience for the side as a whole. Speaking out loud here, it seems to all be about building for 2027 - That's the consensus around the place anyway. It might not be what some people want to hear, but it is what is.
News around that there is also a couple of boys coming back from the US college system over the next few weeks. The only one I can definitively name would be Jackson Bigwood who's played some Central League for Western Suburbs previously, and was involved towards the backend of the successful CL2 campaign last year.
A relatively unknown name to many, but it was nice to see Jack Flood turning out for IBU today. Returning to the club where he played his youth footy, and was also heavily involved in the CL2 campaign in 2025. Think he's gone down to Wellington for uni, but it's always nice to see guys coming out of the regions and getting further opportunities in the game.
Managed to take a couple of photos from the sidelines today too. Yep, that is the mountain poking through in the background.
I was intrigued to see if my crowd approximation last time out was about right as well so I ended up counting heads at H/T (🤣) - One end of the ground behind the goal had about 150, there was about the same # down the opposite end, with maybe another 50-100 on the sideline by the clubroom.
Great day in the sun at the footy. $32ish for 5 beers was also pretty good value on a lazy Sunday afternoon. 🫣
50 grand seems a tad bit ambitious. Is that what they actually need or are they just high balling it?
Really great to see another non-Wellington club in the Central League for regional spread. And really great to see another club whose home ground is grass and not plastic and covered in a myriad of different sports field lines. but this just comes across sligtly gringe
you'd think maybe just maybe with the pcomning windfall rfom the women and men getting into their respective WC's there might be some reprieve for amatuer clubs that make all of it happen.
its pretty short-sited of NZ Football to change the systems to make it more costly for clubs to have a fair crack if they aren't going to come to the table with financial support IMO.
zonknz wrote: To the best of my recollection, Central Football does fund travel in a way Capital does not.
Thanks for that - I'd better get onto Central Football. Haven't had anything from them for Central League.. However, we do get a travel allowance from Capital when we travel to Wellington.
Don't piss off old people - the older we get, the less "Life in Prison" is a deterrent
