Farts starting to reach their potential

The sun was out, although the snow on the hill tops told the truth about the season and the temperature, cool enough to ensure even the Older Farts moved around, simply to keep warm. It was a local Derby, versus that team for the northern reaches of the Hutt Valley, Upper Hutt.

The signs were good when Nuts won the toss, and chose the ball, andf the Farts played with the sun on their backs in the first half.

UH started without a goalie and the Farts tried hard to capitalise early, but gallant defending around the circle kept us out. However not long after the goalie took the field (and after we’d had a couple of potential PC’s not awarded), the Farts opened the scoring with a cracking goal to Jason. Toddy slammed home a PC to pout us 2-0 up, but UH pulled one back so that the Farts hit the sheds 2-1 up at half time. Although they’d had plenty of possession and pressure, they weren’t looking like increasing their lead, and in fact UH potentially looked like poulling it back.

Nuts had spent some time on the side line, analysing the weather patterns (staring at the sky), appreciating the supporter base (checking out the women in the crowd) and keeping up his energy (eating Peanut slabs) and was rested enough to give a stirring talk at half time. He really emphasised stepping up to the opposition and building some depth through the field, and to be honest, most of us stood there, concentrated (on the sky, the crowd, picking our noses etc)and took it all in.

However it must have worked as the Farts team in the second half played much better, with better linking through the halves, inners and forwards, and applying more pressure on the opposition. Trapper got onto a strongly hit cross form Jason early in the half, with the ball rocketing just wide of the upright. Matt B managed to sky on high and wide of the goal , and a number of other shots were saved . The Farts had almost all the pressure, with long spells in the UH red zone.

This paid off with some brilliant play from trapper, latching onto a loose ball outside the circle, he drew his player then flicked a pass onto Nuts who was unmarked for him to clamly slide the ball into the backboards.

The young guys played a huge role in the final goal, with Daniel dodged defence turning over the ball, Matt B bringing it up and passing to Jason who deftly beat the keeper and fired the ball at the UH goal. A defender got his foot to it in front of the line and the farts had a stroke!

Damian stepped up and calmly put the ball into the corner of the backboards.
The final score was 4-1, which in the end flattered UH a bit, although they continued to fight right to the end.

The team was flattered by the appearance of Gok on the sidelines to cheer them on. Thank god he didn’t bring his whistle and offer to umpire, but his wit and charm was a pleasant addition to the crowd.

Goals
1– Jason
1- Toddy
1– Nuts
1– Damian

MVPs
3 - Daniel – full on performance, plenbty of running, and support in both attack and defence, and lots of effort to back tackle when dispossessed of the ball
2 - Jason – strong performance in the front, only just pipped for Player of the day.
1 – Matt B – tireless worker and continues to listen to Trapper s advice (no one else does)
1 – Rearend – Umpired again
1 – Craig – Oranges.