Manawatu Div 3

Thought why not start a thread I am probably the only person that will look at or post in however LETS GO BABY. Pre Season has been a merry go round where we still don't know what teams are actually in the grade thanks to the amazing organisation of Central Football. First off we had the team that came first (record 14w,0D, 3L, 81For, 29 Against) and the team that came third go up to Div 2 (They requested it), and the team that came first requested to be dropped back down because they don't actually want a challenge they want to beat less skilled because that's how they get their kicks (They have a number of players from Fed and Prem from a couple of years ago). 3 Teams put in official complaints and got told to stick it from central football (Very politely of course) As of yesterday they have now requested to go back up, This shake up also means that now in a div of 8 there is likely to be 4 teams from one club but as the grades are not confirmed and seem to change day to day this could change. Stay tuned for exciting updates as they come!

Two preseason Games that I have heard of so far

12/03/2016 Marist Jokers (2nd div 3 in 2015) vs Marist Jesters (2nd div 4 in 2015) 13-0

13/03/2016 Marist Greenies (4th div 3 in 2015) vs Marist Celts (5th div 3 in 2015) 4-0

The Confusion keeps coming, According to this RSM Saints are in both Div 2 and Div 3??? In fairness I did ask a question about where they actually were but CF didn't respond over the last day and a Half.

I will give props where props are due I am not sure if its to CF or to the clubs but a huge influx of new teams this year, in Div 3 there are 4 teams from last year (5 if you count Saints) 3 new teams (Levin, Levin, and Feilding), One relegated team (Linton), and one Disbanded/reformed team to drop into a lower grade (North End).

We had a draw and confirmation Saints were div 2. Then the draw got taken down, Apparently Fielding 3rds in Div 2 pulled out so the draws for div 2 and 3 got redone to include no Byes meaning 3rd div will now have 8 teams. The draw isn't back up yet though so fingers crossed it comes through this week.

Cup Games Scheduled for this weekend

Marist Celts v Feilding United High school - Should be interesting the Celts are largly a bunch of old salts who have been around the block a few times, with a couple of young kids normally pretty solid while the FUHS is a new team full of youth and Exuberance. I want to say I would pick Celts here but it really depends on who shows up and how hungover they are

Marist Greenies v Takaro Glory - This is a replay of first cup round last year where greenies won 10-0 the other games through the year between these two had two wins to Greenies being 7-1 and 3-2. Want to pick Greenies here but I know a couple of their main strikers are away so will be interesting

Marist jokers have a bye to the next round.

I don't really agree with the Bye as Greenies were in the Final last year (Winner has gone up to div 2), Feel greenies should be getting the Bye not the Jokers but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles

Saturdays cup games had excitement drama and everything you could want. First up were marist greenies v takaro glory,  both teams started with a hiss and a roar but it became clear quickly that the greenies had the upper hand and they walked away with a 9 nil win.
Second game of the day was fielding united highschool v marist celts,  1-1 just after half time before the young boys pulled away to a 5-1 win.
Marist jokers had a bye to the semis.

Drama later that night though as the draws go up and we see marist celts v marist jokers on Monday,  with marist greenies having a bye. Turns out fielding played an illegal player and has been removed from the competition. The look on one of the Celts faces when they realised they have to play again on Monday was priceless.

I really don't understand how you can play an illegal player on the first game of the season lmao

Marist celts v marist jokers in cup semi. Jokers ran away with a 5 nil won meaning the final will be marist greenies v marist jokers in august.

Well the dusty has settled on the first round and some surprises have been thrown in the mix.

North end AFC Blues 1 PN Marist B&M Security Greenies 5 - The scoreline was a bit surprising as Blues looked to be a strong team (Having dropped from div 2) Greenies also duffed a few clear cut chances including one completely open goal with the keeper caught outside the box and no defenders anywhere near, striker just couldn't control the ball into the net and put it wide

PN Marist Celts 0 PN Marist jokers 2 - Again scoreline a bit surprising would have picked Jokers to win by a few more but a solid start for them.

Linton 2nd's 5 Levin AFC Masters 2 - Linton is the big question this year being an army team some weeks they can be full strength and others only have 9 players, looks like they were full strength this week

Feilding United High School 0 Takaro Glory 3 - Surprise result of the round after cup games, Feilding looked very strong in the cup beating celts 5-1 and Glory losing 1-9 but well done to the Takaro boys for pulling it off.

My Top 4 bottom 4 predictions after first game

Top 4 (in no order)

Greenies

Jokers

Linton

Blues

Bottom

Celts

Levin

Feilding

Takaro

Another interesting Weekend of Games

PN Marist B&M Security Greenies 6 PN Marist Celts 1 - Scoreline was a bit expected however the goal greenies conceded was soft and in the same manner as the week before so something needs to be addressed at training this week.

PN Marist Jokers 9 Linton 2nds 3 - Jokers scored inside 20 seconds and the game went from there, they substituted their keeper to play outfield and that's when they conceded 2 of the 3 goals. Jokers are still looking good for a top 2 finish

Takaro Glory 4 North End AFC Blues 1 - Takaro came into the game with a plan and executed it well to pull off a surprise win, I thought they would have had a stronger showing after last week.

Levin AFC Masters 4 Feilding United Highschool 3 - Don't really know anything about this game.

Palmerston North Marist B & M Security Greenies. What a name.

Another week and some more results

PN marist Celts 4 North end Blues 1 - The Blues are really surprising me, they seemed like a good solid team when we played them but they seem to be unable to play as a cohesive unit, a good win for the Celts and much needed as a couple of the lads were getting a bit disheartened this year.

Takaro Glory 3 Levin Masters 3 - Takaro keeps surprising me, it will be interesting to see how both them and Levin progress during the year.

Linton Army 2nds 1 PN B&M security Marist Greenies 3 - The score does not reflect the game at all Greenies missed 7 open goals (no exaggeration it was actually 7) in the first half, it was utter domination but all the boys up front were having a day to forget about, Greenies were a bit worried when we got there as the field was wide and the thought was the army boys are fit so they will play it wide and use the fitness but they just went straight up the middle and gave us the wings the entire game.

Feilding United High school 2 PN Marist Jokers 3 - The shock of the round the school kids pushing the jokers this close, The jokers were a bit shell shocked by the way the kids play from what I hear.

Another interesting week of results here in Manawatu Div 3 including one of the strangest things I have seen.

Pn Marist jokers 2 Levin AFC Masters 1 - Another surprising result from the jokers they are still winning but not in the fashion they are used to, upon speaking to one of there players about how it went his honest reply was "We were sh*t, and we have been playing like sh*t", they are still getting the wins though and that's all the matters.

North end AFC Blues 3 Linton 2nds 2 - Meh

PN marist Celts 0 Takaro Glory 5 - Again Takaro are surprising after there first up 0-9 loss not only are they winning but they are putting quite a few goals in the back of the net, I am looking forward to seeing if they can continue this as the season goes on.

PN Marist B&M Security Greenies 3 Fielding united Highschool team 1 - This was a close game, the fielding boys went up early from a well taken corner, player came through losing his marker and nodding it into the back of the net between the keeper and the person on the far post a really good goal. Then something I have never seen before about ten mins into the second half a Fielding player got sent off with a straight red for dissent to the greenies player ref (not an assigned ref), the situation went along the lines of the ref blew around the halfway mark for a handball by a fielding player, the player accepted it but another player kept shouting "Ball to hand", the ref responded saying "No the hand was way from the body in an unnatural position and advantage was gained from it" the player then proceeded to spout off "F*ck Off it was ball to hand", the ref called the player in and said along the lines of "There is no need for any profanity directed at the ref, I have made the call and if I hear any thing else I will send you for dissent do you understand" to which the player spouted off again (I didn't catch all of it) and the ref gave him his marching orders. This was followed by the opposition coach having a go at the ref. Funny thing was the player who committed the hand ball did not contest it, and after the game over half the fielding lads apologised to the ref for the way he was treated so fair play to them.

Anyway table below

Late update, so sorry to all my readers (i.e. me)

Games are starting to go a bit more to form now.

Takaro Glory 2 Marist jokers 4 - Jokers were 2 down in the first 20 from what I hear and did well to fight back for the win

Levin AFC Masters 1 PN Marist B&M Greenies 3 - Interesting game, Greenies without 3 of there first choice starters still managed to dominate the game with greenies giving away their first penalty of the season by our attacking Mid chopping a Levin player in the box like he was a piece of Firewood (unintentional) which is how Levin got their goal, He then made up for it by taking the ball from the kick off through their team into a 1 on 1 with the keeper where he played the keeper and won a penalty of his own.

Linton 2nd's 4 PN marist Celts 0 - The celts aren't having much luck at the moment

Feilding United High School Team 2 North End AFC Blues 2 - Feilding get their first point!!!

Also should mention a top of the table clash this weekend between the Jokers and Greenies.

Greenies haven't beaten jokers in 2 and a half seasons so its also a bit of a grudge match.

TIME & VENUE	HOME TEAM	AWAY TEAM
2:30 PM Sat 7 MayLive Now Ashhurst Domain 2 (Map)	North End AFC Blues	2	FINAL	1	Levin AFC Masters	Match Centre
2:30 PM Sat 7 MayLive Now Bill Brown Park 1 (Map)	P.N Marist Celts	2	FINAL	1	Feilding United High School Team	Match Centre
2:30 PM Sat 7 MayLive Now Bill Brown Park 3 (Map)	P.N Marist B & M Security Greenies	2	FINAL	2	P.N Marist Jokers	Match Centre
2:30 PM Sat 7 MayLive Now Linton Army Camp (Map)	Linton 2nds	5	FINAL	0	Takaro Glory	Match Centre

I see you got a draw.    

We did indeed. Not to happy but them's the breaks we dominated first half scoring in about the 7th min but couldn't get anymore, The manager made some changes to the defensive line at half time and we conceded 2 quick goals before it returned to normal but we only managed to peg one back. Something bright to note about it is that they had their full strength team but we were short 2 starters and 2 more were playing sick so hopefully we can come out firing next round!!

The game was interesting after the first goal the Jokers put their quickest guy (who is a forward) in the backline who then committed two blatent Yellow card tackles but unfortunately we did not have an official ref, they also changed their keeper at half time.

Still leaves us top of the table but puts pressure on us to perform over the next round which I guess is good.

Hello again to my many readers and followers.

Another week and things are starting to take shape.

PN Marist Jokers 8 North end Blues 2 - Not much to report here, the jokers were pretty happy that they actually started putting the ball in the back of the net like they should have been throughout the rest of the first round. It shows that despite some results the Jokers Coach said "it's a good tight division with any team being able to be any other on their day"

Takaro Glory 1 PN Marist B&M Security Greenies 2 - The score does not reflect this game at all, Takaro had 2 shots on target the entire game it just so happened one of them caught the keeper off his line into the wind so it went over him held up and dropped perfectly in. Greenies on the other hand were woeful in front of goal relying on two Goals from Corners to win it. Full props to Takaro though for putting up a fight until the final whistle

Levin AFC Master 4 Marist Celts 3 - Tight game where the Celt's POTD scored a goal off his face

Fielding United High School 3 Linton 2nds 1 - I do feel sorry for Linton at times having come off a good win last week to be ravaged by players unavailable.

I went missing my bad.

Not a great gamer for our lads last weekend we had our first loss of the season.

Our game went like this, from the kick off we took the ball straight up the wing whipped in a cross and the striker connected it just wide, that was our game, 15 mins in I was having a chat to their striker (there was nothing happening at our end of the park pretty much that entire time) and he was in disbelief how we weren't up by 10, our strike force just could not get it in. We then conceded possibly the silliest goal of the season, North End long ball with the CB chasing it with a striker behind him, keeper calls so CB diverts out of his way, keeper kicks it straight into CB and it deflects onto the upright and comes back at the North End Striker who is just pulling up on his run it hits his leg that's coming forward and goes in (he knew nothing about it). We then conceded another silly goal where the keeper palmed a shot to one of their strikers who when trying to line up a shot hit it with his off foot by accident straight into the corner.

We then proceeded to try and get through a ten man bus that just wasn't happening (literally for 90% of the second half they had 10 people in their 18 yard box and a striker just sitting on half way). It just sucks that its our own fault we couldn't win a game that we should have dominated but that's football.

Sorry been slack. We missed a game due to cancelations. Came back and had a good 5-0 win over the army lads but the talking point of the round was marist jokers v fielding highschool.
This game starred on the pitch next to ours 5 mins befire we started,  jokers manager refing,  we finished packed up the Nets and wandered over and the game is still going jokers are 2-1 down in the 105th min and get a penalty which is slotted and the whistle goes a minute after for full time. 

What the hell? Why was there so much additional time?

From what I can tell after talking to people there was no reason at all.

Things didn't go great for the Greenies this past week, We showed up to play in fielding and had been bumped of Timona Park to the High School Field. We showed up and their first field was TERRIBLE, one inch had a 3 inch pool of water where the keeper box was meant to be, it was requested unsafe by the greenies captain and we were shifted to their second pitch that was about the size of an under 17 pitch Tiny.

Even so we had the better of the game with a goal scored in the first ten mins our strikers just couldn't find the back of the net after that despite so many one on one opportunities. 81st minute winning 1-0 lost the game 1-2 to two late goals from Corners.

Jokers got a good win against Levin to keep them on top meaning we have to beat them in both our games against them and not drop another game.

Its going to be a tough second half of the season

an interesting return to form for the greenies this week and the rest of the results seeming to go they way they should have.

Greenies played third placed Levin who came out firing, again no real issues for the greenies defence who were pretty rock solid not letting anything in to the substitute keeper who only had one real save to make all game (normal keeper was out with an injured shoulder).

But again things weren't clicking in front of the goal first half we were ticking all the other boxes some brilliant moves and passing just no final touch to put it away. Half time saw the Couch calmly let rip reminding us we knew we could bang them in.

Second half we came out much more composed with our CB getting his second goal in two weeks from a header at the corner, then our Right back who had overlapped on the wing put in a screamer off his shin before one of our strikers actually got a goal. To cap it off about 5 mins before time the Levin keeper dropped the ball to himself tried to go for a run and miss passed it to our left back who took a touch and just popped it over the keeper and defenders into the goal from halfway.