Park Life: 2008

Team Taranaki set off for the capital by road yesterday afternoon unsure where its Central League Football match against Lower Hutt will be played today.

Capital Soccer officials and organisers of the league informed their Taranaki counterparts yesterday that surface water on the Hutt grounds meant they were considering shifting the game to Levin.

Taranaki was committed to last night's accommodation booking in Wellington and will travel back to Levin today if the venue is changed.

"So the lads are going into the unknown," head coach James Graham said.

He said the up-side of the venue change, if confirmed, was a shorter trip home after the match.

Wherever it ends up playing, Taranaki will be looking to get its campaign back on track after a disappointing 3-2 loss to Wellington United in New Plymouth last Sunday.

Graham put the loss partly down to Taranaki "going into the match a little over-confident".

"We probably went in as favourite, not as underdogs as we're used to being, and maybe dropped our guard a little."

Taranaki has developed a handy away record in the middle rounds of the competition, with wins on the road over Stop Out and Palmerston North Marist.

A win over Lower Hutt today would be Team Taranaki's third successive victory on the road this season.

The form book suggests Taranaki deserves to also start today's match as favourite. (What?)

It beat Lower Hutt 2-1 when the teams clashed for the first and only time this season on May 31.

However, Graham is expecting a backlash from the Hutt side today.

"They will be wanting to put that right."

Dangerman for Hutt this season has been Pedro Garcias.

He has scored 13 goals, putting him one goal behind the leader on the competition's golden boot ladder.

Graham said Garcias could be lethal if given room to roam and Taranaki needed to be wary of Hutt's sharp shooter.

"If you let him (Garcias) play, he'll hurt you for sure," Graham said.

TEAM TARANAKI: Michael Reive, Elvin Hunt, Andrew Thomson, Stephen Kibby, Ritchie Burkitt, Matt Sigurdsson, Nick Rush, John Sigurdsson, Tyson Brandt, Matthew Kelbrick, Jared McElhannan, James Grieve (capt), Josh Herlihy, Michael Somers, Nick Betteridge, Nathan Hill, Karl Dolan; coach Bob Sova.

Team Taranaki was played off the paddock in the second half by a beefed-up Lower Hutt City side in a Central League Football match at Fraser Park in Wellington on Saturday.

After heading to the halftime break 1-0 down, Taranaki's defence leaked another three goals to lose 4-0.

"They had just too much quality up front for us," said head coach James Graham, who was not at the game, but had received a match report from co-coach Bob Sova.

In the previous league clash between the two teams earlier this season, Taranaki came away 2-1 winners. "Apparently they were a lot more organised than when we played them last time and had strengthened their side and had more quality players in there," Graham said.

The match did not need to be transferred to Levin, as initial fears of surface water problems on the capital city ground were not realised, allowing the game to played at the original venue.

Graham was not laying any blame on existing wet pitch conditions for the loss.

"You can't blame the pitch, you can't blame anything. We were just outplayed," he said

"And we didn't help our own cause by giving the ball away in our own area."

With its latest success, Lower Hutt moves to third on the competition table with Taranaki sitting eighth in the 10-team table and well clear of the relegation zone.

Taranaki goalkeeper Michael Reive was kept busy on Saturday preventing the score from escalating further with some fine saves. He was named player of the match for his side.

Things don't get any easier in the next round with Taranaki taking on top of the table Petone at New Plymouth's Yarrow Stadium on Saturday.

The start time has not yet been confirmed.

Marist has competed well against the top sides in the Central League, but failed to ram home its advantage against the lesser teams.

"But really we didn't play any better than we did when we lost to Taranaki; this time we we managed to put the ball in the net," coach Steve Green said

Star of the show for Marist was Uruguayan Gustavo Saralegui, who scored four goals, taking his season tally to 11.

Apart from the size of the win the most pleasing thing to come out of the game for Green was how goal- keeper Andrew Bailey finally showed the confidence to come off his line to collect the ball and also play as a sweeper.

Marist didn't have the game all its own way and for the first 20 minutes it struggled to get out of its own half. Then a brilliant solo effort by Saralegui was complemented 30 seconds later when Adam Cowan chipped the keeper.

The second spell was all one-way traffic, even when Marist went down to 10 men when it lost the Smith brothers, Troy and Josh, as well as Nick Roydhouse.

North End is into the next stage of the Central League playoffs and a win over Valeron next week will give it a deserved Western Premiership title.

On Saturday North End made hard work of beating Marist Reserves, 2-1, although it was more dominant than the score would suggest missing numerous chances.

Coach Barry Wilkinson wasn't concerned about the close score.

"I would be concerned if we weren't creating chances, but we were a lot better than them," Wilkinson said. "Now we know we're in the top-two we'll prepare ourselves for the games with the top-two Hawke's Bay teams."

Wilkinson is pleased star striker Michael Jacques, who has been out for most of the season with shin splints, is due back shortly.

"We're in a pretty good position, we just need to make sure we're fit enough and everyone knows what their job is."

Wilkinson has loads of choices up front, with former Wanganui player Jared Bloor having scored more than 20 goals this season and, along with Zane Robinson and Jacques, he has plenty of depth.

Two more longe-range strikes from Mikey Chrisford set Red Sox Manawatu on the way to a 3-1 victory over Wanganui Athletic on a water-logged Skoglund Park.

Chrisford has made a habit of scoring with powerful shots from outside opponents' goal areas this season and his two goals took his season tally to 13.

In other games Palmerston North Boys' High School easily accounted for Linton, 4-0, while Wanganui City kept its very small hopes of second place alive as it easily dumped Massey University, 6-1, at home.

* The August 30 clash between Red Sox Manawatu A and Massey International to decide the Mid-central League title remains on target with both sides gaining narrow wins yesterday.

Red Sox Manawatu kept its unbeaten with a close, 3-1 win over Valeron Reserves, while Massey beat Wanganui Development, the only team to take a point off Red Sox, 1-0, in Wanganui.

It's amazing what a difference a week can make.

Okay so the opponents weren't in the same league as Petone but the Napier City Rovers Central League side had undergone metamorphosis at Bluewater Stadium, Napier, on Saturday.

Graham Fyfe had turfed out his blinkers for some peripheral vision, a saintly Chris Davies was a week too early on the Christian calendar to mark St Lawrence Day and, consequently, the frown lines on stand-in coach Terry O'Neill's face had disappeared.

Soon after favourites Napier thumped Western Suburbs, from Wellington, 4-1 O'Neill emphasised the significance of building a rapport with the players.

Undeniably a more articulate and composed Davies added stability to the engine room but it would be a travesty to let that transformation eclipse the outstanding performance of leftback Josh Stevenson, whose cog-in-the-wheel efforts had the visitors scrambling in defence.

Quite often Stevenson marshalled the left flank, freeing up Fyfe to prowl and dazzle the red shirts with his Fred Astaire moves but ensuring that the all-too-important passes were not squandered.

In the first 30 minutes Rovers raided the opposition goalmouth but a foot, post or even some friendly fire (Greig Henslee into Davies' back) prevented the inevitable. The persistence in pushing the ball out wide to the flanks paid off in the 31st minute when Stevenson turned defence into attack with a series of one-twos that saw Fyfe poke the ball to striker Stu Wilson lurking in the wing.

Wilson's curling cross floated to Reiner Bauerfeind on the far post. Bauerfeind rose above the tall timber to leave keeper Mark Sopers grasping at thin air as the ball grazed its way into the net below the crossbar.

Even before the endorphins had time to work themselves out of the system, a superb cross from Stevenson found an unmarked Andy Pickering on the edge of the 18m box. Like good strikers, the pint-sized player on wheels jabbed a worm burner into the left-hand corner of the net for a 2-nil lead.

Stung into action, Suburbs centreback Tim Schaeffers reacted negatively, his brain explosion costing them a free-kick after a blatant elbow on Davies in an aerial challenge. Centre-mid Roddy Brown was inspirational with his darting runs and even caught Scott Dunn napping in goal with a pile driver in the 34th minute.

Skipper Regan Cameron and fellow defender Nick Dockery gave the Blues faithful some heart palpitations with some indecisive play but Henslee added to Suburbs' misery in the 39th minute when the keeper parried Fyfe's attempt at goal for a 3-nil lead.

Stevenson again rattled keeper Sopers' cage a minute before halftime with a pile driver but the shave off the crossbar didn't go his way.

Suburbs needed to hit first to make a game of it after the breather but Rovers took the life out of the encounter within two minutes of Gerry Hughes blowing the whistle. Fyfe, in a one-two with Wilson, prodded the ball into the back of the net as he fell to the ground from a tackle.

Dave Johnston and Zann Janse were diligent in counter attacks with Brown and Janse profited from a through ball in the 89th minute to reduce the margin to 4-1 but it was too little too late.

Taking consolation from the 1-all stalemate in the second 45-minute spell, Suburbs coach Matt Calcott told SportToday he thought his young side were in for a pasting after the 3-0 lead in the first half.

It must have left the fans dwelling on what-ifs had the Rovers played Petone in the same fashion but needless to say that O'Neill's men will have to repeat that performance away against Wellington Olympics this Sunday.

Hughes controlled his last Central League match on Saturday after six seasons in the competition to concentrate on coaching referees.

It's a combination of travelling to Palmerston North, family commitments and also the fact that there are younger people waiting to referee at that level and I'm occupying their place," he said.

same for brockie..

Lower Hutt have the goods and the speed to beat Mar this week.  Never thought I would cheer for those guys, but they can keep the CL alive for another week at least....

Team Taranaki will be out to give captain James Grieve a fitting send-off when taking on top-of-the-table Petone at New Plymouth's Yarrow Stadium this afternoon.

Today's Central League Football game will be the last for Grieve, as he heads away on his big OE next week.

Taranaki will be up against a team that is flying high at the moment.

Petone has been in impressive form most of the season and jumped to the top of the table last week to go one point ahead of Miramar - with three catch-up games in hand.

"It's going to be a tough challenge for us and certainly won't be easy," said Taranaki head coach James Graham on the eve of today's game.

Petone has had 10 wins from 15 outings to date this season, twice as many as Taranaki, from the same number of games.

The match is the last chance for Taranaki to cross off another of its season goals - to beat one of the top two teams in the competition.

"It's the one team goal we set at the start of the season that we haven't achieved yet," Graham said.

"We've got one last opportunity and we'll be doing our best to achieve it tomorrow."

Taranaki has a full strength line-up to choose from today, apart from Josh Herlihy, whose availability had yet to be confirmed.

Despite being tipped over 4-0 by Lower Hutt City in the capital last week, Graham had confidence his team would be competitive against a top soccer side.

Team Taranaki: Michael Reive, Elvin Hunt, Andrew Thomson, Stephen Kibby, Ritchie Burkitt, Matt Sigurdsson, Nick Rush, John Sigurdsson, Tyson Brandt, Matthew Kelbrick, Jared McElhannan, James Grieve (capt), Josh Herlihy, Michael Somers, Nick Betteridge, Nathan Hill, Karl Dolan.

Wellington Olympic's Shaun Easthope has labelled as a "cover-up" a Capital Football decision to back a controversial refereeing decision in the Central League.

Easthope, who is also Olympic's player/coach, said it was unbelievable that Capital Football had supported a decision to yellow card teammate Raf de Gregorio during last week's game against Petone.

De Gregorio was yellow-carded for a foul Easthope claims he made - and that referee Jamie Cross admitted at the time Easthope had made.

Capital Football refute that, but Easthope said their investigation into what happened at Raumati's Weka Park was a sham.

Easthope said Cross deliberately booked de Gregorio despite admitting it was Easthope who collided with a Petone player in the second half.

Easthope claims Cross did not want to issue him with another yellow card because it would have doubled as a sending off.

Easthope and de Gregorio both protested the former All White's innocence to Cross. A stunned de Gregorio also swore at Cross, saying "this is f...ing bullsh*t". He was sent off for dissent.

Cross, one of Capital Football's top referees, was not available for comment but general manager Keith Palmer said an inquiry had supported the decision to yellow-card de Gregorio.

He said Cross saw clear contact by de Gregorio first which was why he was booked.

"There seems to be a suggestion he was a random booking well away from the action, but according to the referee's report and supported by the referees' inspector, that is not the case," Palmer said.

He admitted it was a case of the word of two players against the referee and the assessor, who backed Cross' version of events.

"Two players made the tackle on the Petone player, Raf made the first contact, and Raf got the card."

Easthope rejected that claim and said there had been a cover-up.

"People on the sidelines must have heard it [Cross' comments]. He made the classic comment which makes this response from CF bollocks when he said `look, if I give this guy a yellow card, I have to send him off, so I'm giving it to you'.

"That comment goes against everything football is about. It's just a big cover-up of the incident.

"It's hard to swallow. I've been involved in the game for a long time ... now I'm thinking `why bother?' when these guys are acting the way they are."

De Gregorio, one of three Olympic players sent off in last weekend's loss, had written to Capital Football outlining his dismay at the being awarded the initial yellow card.

"I don't believe any [rules] state that where a player is judged to have committed a cautionable offence the official can now caution any other player on the field he wishes to," he wrote.

"I agree my language was deserving of a yellow card, however only after the official had taken the rule book, thrown it entirely out the window and made an absolute joke of a well contested game.

"In a game that is viewed to be amateur where officials can show yellow and red cards at ease without responsibility, where is the game heading?"

Easthope said referees had to be more accountable, especially where money was involved. Clubs are fined $35 for a yellow card and $105 for a red card.

De Gregorio's one-match suspension stands and Easthope yesterday discovered he would face a hearing himself regarding post-match comments to officials.

                                   P  W  D  L  GF  GA  Pts  
Petone                        16 11  1  4  29  20  34 
Miramar Rangers         13  9  3  1  38  10  30 
Lower Hutt City           15  8  3  4  46  27  27 
Napier City Rovers       15  7  3  5  37  29  24 
Palm Nth Marist           18  6  5  7  34  32  23 
Olympic                      14  6  3  5  33  28  21 
Western Suburbs         14  6  3  5  26  28  21 
Team Taranaki            17  6  1  10  19  30  19 
Wellington United        17  5  0 12  20  36  15 
Stop Out                    16  2  2 12  19  61   8