Central League Review Round 8
The big clash of the weekend took place on Sunday, with Wellington Olympic hosting Miramar Rangers at Newtown Park. A large, partisan crowd were in attendance to see a tightly contested game between the traditional rivals. Raf De Gregorio and Barry Lewis were missing for Olympic while Miramar were without Jamie Farrington. Miramar wonder-kid Michael Eagar opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Dominic Rowe was fouled in the process of shooting halfway through the first half. Although the shot was high and wide, the tackle by centre back Jamie O�Connor was very late. The game had been a typical derby up to that point, with both teams working hard defensively to limited opportunities for each other, but the goal was the catalyst for the game to open up. Tim Butterfield had a shot cleared off the line after Olympic keeper Andrew Toomath dropped a corner, and shortly after Olympic drew level when Mikey Halikias headed home after good work by Costa Barbarouses on the right hand side of the area. Moments before halftime Matt Keane drew a remarkable save from a back-peddling Toomath when he attempted to lob him from the corner of the box. The action was frenetic and one particularly willing challenge saw Rob Kirkness needing stitches in his forehead and returning to the pitch swathed in bandages. It was also good to see plenty of passion from a fired up crowd.
The second half started with a fired-up Olympic taking the game by the scruff of the neck, and they deservedly took the lead when a slick passing move down the right wing saw George Barbarouses in behind the defence. After skilfully dinking over his defender inside the box he kept his composure, sliding the ball past Sacha Nathu to make it 2-1 to Olympic. However, Miramar started to slowly take control of the match with a more direct approach, and equalised with 20 minutes remaining when substitute PJ Lupi acrobatically volleyed in a corner at the far post. To celebrate, Lupi completed a staggering display of acrobatics which took all his remaining energy, leaving him to spend the final 20 minutes crouched over on the touch-line with his hands on his knees (the pose more commonly known as 'The Greene'). Five minutes later, another corner caused confusion in the Olympic box, and ended with the ref awarding a second penalty to Miramar after an unfortunate handball by defender O�Connor. Youngster Eagar showed great composure to slot his second penalty of the day and give Rangers a lead they never looked like losing. The last few minutes saw Miramar nearly extend their lead as chances to Rowe, Butterfield and Lupi (now breathing out his ears) were squandered, as Olympic threw players forward in search of the equaliser, at times leaving a solitary defender at the back.
Wests remained top of the Central League beating a below par Lower Hutt 5-0 at Endeavour Park on Saturday afternoon. The first half was an even affair with both sides having chances, although Wests went into the break one goal to the good after defender Alex Chiet converted from a corner. Lower Hutt started the second half strongly, but were guilty of failing to use the possession they had. Strikers Roy of the Costa Rica Clark and Luis Coralles drifted out of the game, and defensively allowed Wests too much space. As they have done all season Wests were able to score slightly against the run of play, Wests winger Ben Feld showed too much pace for the Hutt defenders as he raced through to double their advantage. From that point on Wests began to really control the game. Rupert Ryan made it 3-0 with 20 minutes to play and substitute Moses Patelo completed proceedings with two excellent goals in the final 10 minutes.
The other Saturday fixture saw Stop Out again denied their first win, as they were beaten 3-0 by an improving Napier City Rovers. Stop Out started the game strongly and missed a number of opportunities to take the lead, before Rovers began to claw their way back into the game. Just before half time, Napier were awarded a penalty when a Stop Out defender handled the ball in the area, and Graham Fyfe managed to squeeze the ball home under the body of Dave Finlay to give the visitors a grateful 1-0 halftime lead. Napier started the second half brightly and created several chances before David Geary was put through on goal and drilled in a shot across the keeper and into the far post mid-way through the second half. It was a crucial goal and from that moment Stop Out never looked like getting back into the game. The outstanding debutant Greig Henslee then went on a mazy run before cutting the ball back from the byline deflecting off a defenders knee and beyond the hapless Finlay. Stop Out will be left to rue missed opportunities but overall a thoroughly deserved win for the travelling Napier team.
In games outside of Wellington, a Richard Gray hat-trick was not enough to stop Wellington United going down in an entertaining 8 goal thriller at Gisborne. English import Robert Gill scored his own treble for the home side to extend his lead at the top of the goal-scoring charts, while Jacob Sinkora and Shane Hookes completed the scoring in the 5-3 victory. Bottom team Team Taranaki earned another point when they drew with visiting Palmerston North Marist 1-1 despite having Shane Kidby sent off late in the second spell. Hiroshi Tomonari scored for the home side, and Cory Chettleburg for the visitors. Jeff Yates saved a first half penalty to keep the home side in the match.
Cheers
Those Olympic fans, the skuxiest.
is there a central league transfer window? i always thought that you could transfer at any time up to about the end of july - or they may have been the old day... or are you applying the international transfer window to the central league?
is there a central league transfer window? i always thought that you could transfer at any time up to about the end of july - or they may have been the old day... or are you applying the international transfer window to the central league?