Round 2 - VS Lower Hutt, April 8, Petone Memorial

Write-up by Damo


Elite 2 - 6 Lower Hutt
 
 
After a cracking start to the 2018 season the Elite were looking to back up the goal fest from Melrose to make it 2 wins from 2.
However this was not to be the case…. Well for Lower Hutt it was, but the Elite might as well have stayed home.
 
Turning up to as Crispy would put it to “the field of dreams”, the sun was shining, banter was flowing and the usual warm up routines were being performed (minus Jay who again was wandering!)


The game started with high hopes, the Elite playing some good ball to feet football and opening up the opposition out wide.
Less than 10 minutes in and some acrobatics from Jay lead to Greg open on the edge of the box to shank a left foot half volley home. 1-0 to the Elite.
Taking the lead early (not something the Elite are used to) didn’t do much to settle the ship…. And the rest of the half went shite, shit , ah for f*ck sake, and that was 4-1 down going into half time.
 
Heads in the hole, the Elite had a half time chat with Adam firing some instructions, and hopefully a better start to the second half, we can do this boys!
The start to the second half was as the Elite ended the first… shit. (I think we missed the half time lollies :( )
 
Some live footage from the first half:

As the second half went on the game began to open up a bit more and the Elite had their chances, however some gritty defending (parking the bus) from Lower Hutt snuffed out all the attacks.
Turk finally managed to break down the flanks, and swan his way into the box, slotting home to give the Elite something to get excited about.
Then again the flood gates opened, but not in a good way… another 2 soft goals and the Elite were back to 6-2 in the hole.
 
The team were at a loss, nothing was working, and the final third was proving a real battle with 10 of the 11 Lower Hutt players camped in their area. Some words of encouragement on the pitch from Niall “ Footballs Easy” followed by a trade mark conversion into outer space pretty much summed up the day. 
 
One last lifeline was thrown to the Elite in the 80th minute… just in time to start the comeback. Lower Hutt were adjudged by the TV ref to have handled the ball in the area, and up stepped Parkin to take the resulting penalty, no sooner than to have the ball whipped away by Greg.
The penalty effort was saved ( a blind keeper would have kept it out) and that was the end of another miserable half of football.  
 
If Football was 10 minutes the game would have been one to remember, but the last 80 were well….. to forget.
Full team fine into the books!!
 
Points – if we actually deserve any??
 
1 – Jay, ran hard and was unlucky on a few occasions not to get a goal
1 – Clem, gave it his all, chased till the final whistle
1 – Greg, great goal to open the scoring, battled hard
-3 – Greg, took a piss on the field pre game, followed by that howler penalty (Scum)