AFF Ladies Div 1

AFF Ladies Div ... 4 *sigh*

Can it be truly associated with Celtic?

Papatoetoe AFC 1 - 3 UniMountBohCeltic

Last week's fixture was postponed as Manukau City were practicing their boxing skills playing in the Women's Cup, so two away fixtures in a row. My mother grew up in P/toe and they always put on a good feed down there, if the Murdoch Park facilities are sometimes a little bucolic. It was only after the game we found out how to switch the lights on in the dressing-room toilets, for example.

The ground was hard and sandy and I skinned my knees badly making a diving save. I should say "the" diving save, because that was the only one I had to make all match. The goal we conceded came from a defensive mixup and a screaming strike from the edge of the box. Apart from that, traffic was essentially one way. Our glorious fast striker scored a hat-trick of tap-ins past an outpaced defence and keeper.

I know the feeling now.

Released some candid information about a now former coach on the Northern League forum. He wasn't too pleased as noted in his reply.

Tbh forums are there for a reason, so it would be a shame to think you're being censored or controlled on here by your coach.

I don't think it was the coach who was pissed, but perhaps some of my fellow players who'd got onto him about it. He didn't seem upset personally, more interested in keeping team cohesion.

EDIT: ... oh, so you're S.H. I'm not that surprised. :) But seriously - your version of events sounds pretty insane and you were at least owed an explanation.

UniMount BohCeltic 1 - 4 Western Springs

Errrrgh. That was deeply unpleasant. We found ourselves incapable of actually challenging for the ball, and on the rare occasion we got it, we passed it straight to the opposition. I think having two trainings rained off in a row was starting to show for the girls, and hopefully we can start training on the artificial in future. WS apparently had at least one ex-international playing for them, but that's no excuse.

Fencibles 6 - 0 UniMountBohCeltic

That was just awful.

Ellerslie 1 - 2 UniMount BohCeltic

That's more like it. A bottom-of-the-table clash, sure, but nice to be reminded that we can still win.

The big difference this week is that we seem to have remembered how to pass and tackle. Ellerslie had a bit of an edge on us fitness wise, which really showed in the last 15 minutes, but leading up to that we actually managed to make the ball do the running for much of the game. And I was quite chuffed when I ran out of my box to make a clearance, it went straight to our striker, who passed it to the other striker who scored. My first assist. :D

Question. Is it legal for two players to simultaneously go shoulder-to-shoulder with the ball carrier? It's not in Gaelic football so I thought I'd check. I think I should mention that Ellerslie also had a bit of an edge on us aggression-wise.

Anecdote I forgot to mention: my right boot started flapping early in the 2nd half. I thought it would last the match, but considering the hammering we got in the last 15 minutes, requiring much running and kicking from me, I was wrong. The sole came off altogether with 5 to go. We got a stoppage from the ref to tape it back on, which didn't make the Ellerslie girls very happy at all.

UniMount BohCeltic 1 - 3 Three Kings

... and my second straight-red in as many seasons. :(

Five minutes to go. We're down 1-2 in a match which we've pretty much dominated, due to a couple of thundering errors. Due to these thundering errors, the defence and I have been shirty with one another. I've also had a bad week in other regards so I am hanging onto my sanity by a hair. The ball goes way up high in the hair right in the 6-yard box. I jump up, catch it cleanly, and the 3Kings striker bundles me across the goal line. So... yeah. I shove her back and she goes down. Everyone starts yelling all at once and the ref shows me red. And if I had kept my head and not gone all Zidane, it would have probably been her who got the yellow.

After the match, I had some fascinating suggestions for psychiatric drugs I might like to try. :)

Boh Celtic 1 - 1 Papakura

Back from suspension, and my team had a loss to a mid-table team and a win over a cellar-dweller team in my absence, roping outfield players into goal. With such moderately good results I thought I might have to fight hard to regain my place for this match against one of the top teams in the division, but apparently not.

But what a difference a few weeks makes. The communication was back between the goal-mouth and the defence. Defenders were backing each other up, clearing the ball and putting through cunning passes to the midfield. Our opponents seemed to be 15 year old wondergirls every one, and they got more and more frustrated the more they couldn't beat us old biddies. Because the defence was so good, I didn't have much to do but field the occasional long ball and clear. In fact, both sides were playing a simple "through ball to a striker" strategy, and it just so happens that we caught Papakura offguard first, drawing ahead after about 30 minutes.

'Kura equalised within about 15 seconds of the kickoff of second half, though, in identical fashion. I got a hand to it but no avail. Certainly their young legs were a decisive factor and they started to dominate a bit in the second half, which meant I got a bit of work - plucking the ball out of the air from corners, free kicks or long speculative shots near the halfway line, mostly. It seems that 'Kura were comfortable with long-range shots, or trying to pass the ball into goal - something in the middle and I would have had more trouble. Frustrations on both sides showed and the game got more physical as it went on - people on both sides were hitting the artificial turf pretty hard, and the ref heard protests from both camps. (Well, I mean "lipread" because he was apparently deaf, but you get the gist.)

So a draw which definitely feels like a win and an excellent return to the field. A bye next week and then off to Manukau City, I think.

Manukau City 1 - 2 UniMount Bohemian Celtic

Lovely. Just as nice as the last game, and in fact the same story. While Papakura were composed of 15-year-old wondergirls, MCAFC were composed of ex-Premiership players and apparently the occasional ex-Football Fern. However, they had one tactic and one tactic alone - through balls for their fast strikers to run onto. Once our centre backs caught wise to this, all I had to do was beat the striker in a footrace and I'm happy to say I did that everyone time. I'm told I have a "determined look" in my eye that unnerves opponents. I hope so.

Our first goal was a speculative shot which dribbled between their keeper's legs; their goal pinballed off the legs of at least three players in a post-corner scramble, eventually hit a striker's shinguard, then the post, then trickled over the line. But finally we got the win when our own wonder strike dribbled the ball straight through about three defenders and almost right in the keeper's important little places. They kept coming, but we held out. Still 6th on the table and getting better all the time. It seems to really make a difference when we have a full squad - perhaps outfielders knock themselves out when they know they will be subbed.

I must say though, the changing rooms at MCAFC are not what I would expect from a team with a NRFL men's team.

Heading down to my first local women's match tomorrow, someone clue me up, are the mighty Claudelands Rovers likely to progress to the final of the cup? And what will the standard of play be like?

I'll be there aswell.  Be good to get a chance to see Massey play again now that i'm stuck up here.  Massey have scored 62 goals in 11 Central League games, while Claudelands have scored 114 in 11 Northern League games, and both are top of their respective tables,so it should be a pretty good game.

Massey 4 Claudelands 1, Claudelands very depleted, Massey well worth the win

Unimount BohCeltic 8 - 1 Papatoetoe

Rather than dwell upon a match in which I pretty much did nothing but stand in the cold and wet and shiver (apart from one punch-away from a cross that I'm quite proud of), I will restrict myself to whining about how we lost the points from the hard-fought win over Manukau due to ineligible players. By "ineligible players" we mean "two of our best players came from Manukau last season, and after the match some of their former teammates looked it up and found that the club had mucked up their transfer slightly due to sheer error, so filed a protest". GRRR!

Hoo-boy, the return fixture there will have some good old-fashioned niggle.

They were a effing disgrace when I played there almost 20 years ago!!!

Western Springs 1 - 0 Bohemian Celtic

That was depressing. We held a much better team out until the 85th minute. It was just like the Football Ferns vs Brazil, although I had to do much less of the spectacular saves and much more of running out to clean up long balls. Their coach congratulated us on being massively improved after the game, which was cold comfort.

So we're a solid 7th on the table (should be 6th, bloody Manukau), with 3 games to go in the season. We shouldn't get relegated from here, touch wood. What will be weird is that my old team, MAP, is cleaning up Div 2 at the moment, which means I may well be playing against them next year...