Northern Leagues

Phoooooooooo..........

after watching waitak v sports cup game, think its pretty safe waitak will stay up, and if they don't turn things around very soon sports will be going down. 

Yeah Ellerslie are the prime candidate now. Need a result against ECB this weekend which is unlikely

we need any result.. still there are 12 points on offer left - and without tempting fate we have been in with a chance for points in every game this year, we just need to put a fix a few more 2% er's across the park and we will get some points.

For me it's down to Waitakere, Sports, Bays and us - Bays and Waitakere look like they have squads to be ok but the rumour still is that Krishna is leaving each week - if he does i can see Waitakere being in trouble, will depend on when he leaves of course, if they have enough points then all this will do is distort the league further.

Don't know too much about him and never seen him play....but that is a HUGE move for Bill Tuiloma. Always good to see a young kiwi talent 'make it' so congrats to him! Also congrats to Birkenhead for producing him

Krishna will be here for semi of cup so that's Aug 24th, will get in at least 3 of the 5 league games left.

Whats the game to watch this week?

Birkenhead v Wanderers will be a make or break really for Birko if they are to win the title. Without JHM, that will be an ask.

ECB v Ellerslie is also a semi important one as ECB will want to make sure they don't drop points and Ellerslie desperately need them.

Sports v Bay Olympic will also be a relegation climber along with Manurewa v Waitakere.

The only one not of interest is the 3KU v Central. I might do a half each at ECB then Birko...

I'd say the best contest and football would come from Birko v Wanderers, they had a fantastic league match earlier this year in the wet in Hamilton, Wanderers have been playing great stuff recently but lack a striker to finish it off.

MUST win.

Hi Jeff, have you seen Melville lately? They are pretty different to the start of the season, haven't been beaten in months and their two big Welsh strikers can be quite a handful. 

Ok fair enough. 

It' good for Waikato football that we have three strong northern league sides. Melville have improved greatly over the season . The problem for Melville is that they don't have a strong youth development programme. The rely on oversees players, this year they have 3 or 4 imports which won't aid the club in the long term . 

Paul Clout and Connor Taylor were products of Wanderers youth programme.they couldn't get into the Wanderers 1st team so they went to Melville.you can't blame the players

Waikato football must develop players within our region to ensure we stay strong as a football region . In my view , bringing in oversees players is a short term strategy

Ngaruawahia

Haha nah not that strong.

Williams has done a superb job, there are only three players remaining from last year's side, and two of those barely played under Declan. So he's patched together a whole new squad and has done an excellent job - plenty of young talents in that team, Hilliar, Boss, Clout, Canton, all very good young players, some of who have gained promotion.

If we're calling Melville strong (debatable), then Narra have to be considered alongside them, they're doing pretty well this season too. Going off to watch them in an hour's time, might dust off the old football writing skills and chuck up a blog post on the match if there's some entertainment.

Cossey has also done a great job at Hamilton also..They played there part in a very entertaining game at Birkenhead today, probably deserved a draw....

Hamilton have improved a lot over the last few seasons and are probably only one or two players short from being genuine title contenders, especially if they can also continue to improve their on field discipline. Wanderers young reserve side continues to top the Reserve League and if some of these guys can make the step up to first team football that will further help Hamilton's chances. Their poor results over the last couple of weeks is probably in part due to them missing Michael Built's cutting edge now that he has returned to the UK.

Result of the weekend would have to be in div 2 with 8th placed Warkworth humping 2nd placed Oratia, at Oratia. But I am a little biased in saying that :)

Yeah defo huge win for warkworth  and also tauranga beating springs 

I was going to do the first half at ECB and the other at Birko. Only lasted 30 mins at ECB as Ellerslie were utter crap as in Northern 2 level crap. ECB must have wept with joy seeing Michael Ritchie at the back cause all he had was 50y long balls for goal kicks. Just really crap stuff. I thought they had a nice young team but something has changed there. Not sure what the coach was doing but he sat and just watched it. The captain and the midget in the middle looked ok, but they missed the stocky striker up front who normally plays. Luis del Monde and Jason Hicks were allowed to play 40 yard lateral balls around the edge of the penalty area and they looked much better with out Joe Bresnahan it was 1-0when I left and stayed that way.

The Birkenhead Wanderers game was a good game. As others have said, it could have gone either way and had it been a draw, I don't think Birkenhead would have complained. Can't remember who it was but the wanderers lad that hit the post with an open goal inside the 6y box will kick himself. Dylan Windust actually has a chance to play without JHM in there and deserved both his goal including the reply right after Wanderers scored.

Relegation for Ellerlsie looks certain now. ECB are still a head but the Waitakere game next week will be interesting. Have Centrals primadonnas given up? In the last 4 games, they've only beaten Ellerslie (by one)

Went along to Ngaruawahia yesterday, very good performance, wrote up my thoughts with an added vid of a hilariously fluky goal:

http://fromthecarpark.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/green-machine-fire-up-in-6-1-thrashing.html

I plan to get back more into the football writing routine with WaiBOP starting up soon, so if there's any games in the Waikato which you're interested in what went down (unlikely), just let me know.

Windust must be up there for signing of the season in the Prem. Been fantastic and consistent all season.

If the word 'midget' was the issue then why did you not just say so. It wasn't meant to be insulting or offensive, just a description. The number 10, Hicks and del Monde are short guys and all played in the middle of the field. This guy was shorter hence 'the short guy in the middle' is rather non description as to who I am referring too. The fact you understood who I was talking about proves my point. It was not meant as offense so I apologise for that. 

You might find the northern 2 reference as insulting but ECB never had to work to get the ball or struggled to maintain it or play out. It was kicked back to them frequently and all the ECB players had to do was hold the ball for a second and the defender disappeared off them. It was like a zone marking system and then the defender was more conscious of where he should have been as opposed to marking a man.

You guys choose to play Ritchie. If he is injured or whatever, don't play him. Saying he is on one leg, well if he is good enough to start, he gets judged on that. The fact remains, he sent a lot of 50 y ball up the right hand touch line for goal kicks.

Not sure why you are talking about a young team. I could clearly see it was a young team so I don't follow your line of thinking in that. I didn't say it was not a young team. I don't think they played for each other or as a team, more a collection of young guys in the same uniform. The thing that I have liked about your side (and I have said this previously) is that they are young kids playing for the team and not a pay cheque or ego. Yesterday they just didn't play for anything.

I respect it was only the 30 mins and can't comment in the rest. The fact you made system changes kinda supports what I was saying that you were playing poor and by the same token, the fact it stayed 1-0 validates your point as well.

The pitch... Well I've seen worse. It certainly looked hard but I guess when you look at Kiwitea, Fred Taylor, Shepherds, yours, Olympic Park, then it's not the going standard. I would think Waikaraka and Manurewas would be worse. Haven't seen Keith Hay, Wanderers this year.

If I was going Northern League Forum style, I would have gotten personal and attacked you, and not made it about the football.

isn't that lovely kissed and made up!

Big week of footy ....

I'm picking Ellerslie to beat T.K.U

Bays draw

Central draw

Hamilton  win

Bay o win....

Birko now 1 pt off Bays with a game in hand. Where's the title heading?

2 horse race now in the Prem, but Div One is very exciting, Glenfield are safe but then two points separates five teams after that, at this stage it looks like it could be a Waikato battle for the final promotion spot - Melville and Narra along with North Shore are the contenders, with Takapuna and Suburbs also in the race but having played more games.

Thought Birkenhead dominated Central today

really ? The score no clue then ....?

Last minute goal to central.......and pretty lucky to get away with a 2-1......