As the last vestige of fading light set
over the western hills the Farts put their final preparations on their game
plan. After a lengthy 5 min warm up
Craig called the team together to further bolster the already buzzing morale,
it was clear the news that Trapper was not going to take the field generated much
strong emotion. With the only sub at the start of the game being the injured
Willy things looked a little bleak. The
Petone squad had already played a game earlier in the day and had the advantage
of the additional warm up, watching the pre-game practice they had obviously
brought the A-team for the Farts encounter.
The Red and Blue battle lines were drawn and play commenced as the
umpire breached the now cooling night air with an ear piercing screech.
Almost immediately it was clear that the
Farts were going to have their work cut out the Petone forwards forging ahead
at an alarming rate but the Farts defence were ready our keen planning and
strategy spun into action. Phil deftly focussed
the Petone attack towards Toddy who skilfully positioned himself to thwart the attack;
with Phil on one side Toddy on the other the result is often predictable and at
times scary for the forward. With the
ball firmly in our possession again, the team set about driving the attack back
at the opposition. With Craig directing
traffic from the middle and Nuts constantly providing feedback the team quickly
set about setting up the first goal, with the ball travelling at pace a great
through ball from the halves saw Jason slot the first well-constructed goal.
Just when we thought all our extensive planning
was going to bring the opposition to their knees they managed to slip a lucky
ball through and with the referee’s eyes still not accustomed to failing light
they scored, one a piece… Game on… The right saw plenty of balls getting
through to Phil and lots of crosses from the wings but nothing finding the back
of the net. The game progressed at a frantic
pace with some really good ‘open’ hockey from both teams. With things going to-and-fro,
each team trying to find the upper hand the farts finally got a break with Gus
turning up to support the bench as a sub. The first half was concluded with the
score remaining at 1-1.
The second half started much the same as
the first now with Gus on the field and Nuts playing in the forwards, no one
was really sure where in the forwards but he was up there... somewhere?, the
confusion obviously helped with Nuts finding himself in the circle with the ball
and taking the opportunity to score our second outstanding goal. We progressed with some awesome hockey plenty
of calling, mostly ‘since when was that square?’ or ‘is that really where top
is? ‘. We pretty much controlled the
rest of the game and Phil finally got a great touch from a Nuts cross to score
the final goal, the whistle securing the VICTORY for the Farts at 3-1.
Craig was solid as a rock in the middle, lots
of intercepts and a good interface for feeding the ball between the back and
the forwards
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