Round 14 - VS Lower Hutt, Melrose Park, 9 July

Wellington United 6-1 Lower Hutt Mooseknuckles
Saturday 9th July, 2:30pm Kick-off
Write-up by Niall


The game was on a knife-edge (thanks Roger).

It was 5-1 to the Elite.  

The Elite needed something, nay, someone, to step up and take the game by the scruff of its neck.  Someone to lead the Elite to its destiny.  A hero, if you will. A modern day Archie Gemmill:

CJ turned to the sidelines, and gazed upon the wonder, the glory and majesty of Niall.  He knew what to do.  He knew.  CJ called upon the big man, “Get us a goal Niall, please save us”.  The sense of pleading and desperation in his eyes was obvious.  But, Niall wasn’t going to let those emotions stand in is way.

The savior was ready.

Before gracing the field with his presence, Niall considered some of the action he witnessed just minutes prior:

Even the Elites defense had its moments:

Niall, put this out of his mind and focused on the task at hand.  He stepped onto field, ignoring the daggers from the salty Frenchman, whose desire to play upfront was only too apparent.

To warm up and get into the game, Niall took a wonderful pass from Adam (more on that wee beauty later) first time and laid it off to Pat, whose deft chip almost had our hero in for a quick goal.  Alas, the defender clattered Niall with a challenge that our esteemed referee deemed fair:

Not to be denied, Niall persevered.  A few minutes later, Adam floated a glorious ball over the top of the defense.  The crowd held its breath.

Niall chested the ball down in his stride, beat the last defender with a deft touch, and then rifled the ball into the bottom corner.  It looked a little like this (but better):

And that was that.  Game over.  6-1 Elite.

MVP Points:

3 – Adam – you will never see a better assist than that.  Awesome.
2 – Ross – got dragged off, allowing Niall to come on and score the goal of the season
1 – CJ – did a good job correctly calling Nialls goal onside.