The Skins Sweep to Victory

The Marist Skins remain in title contention for the Div 9 championship with a 4-2 win over the Petone Chuggers on a wind swept Cobham Park. Ground conditions were conducive to attractive football and the Skins obliged in the first half especially.

Playing with the wind the Skins went ahead after twenty minutes when defensive lynchpin Scotty Donaldson launched a rare raid into the opposition half before slipping a through ball which dragged the Chuggers keeper out and powerful centre forward Ray Hardy tackled the stranded keeper before dribbling the ball into an open goal.

The heavens opened as three further goals were perfectly orchestrated within 10 minutes. Workhorse central midfielder Aaron Watson claimed one with a 30 metre swirling shot. This goal was the third and was sandwiched between two beauties which came from nice Skins passing where much like his namesake Dr Watson, Aaron helped solved the Skins scoring mystery with two nice assists. Jim Boutcher and Oliver Davie were noted down as the scorers.

The halftime break left the Skins 4-0 up, but some gritty defending repelled plenty of long balls and shots as the wind continued to play a part. Finally after about 20 minutes the Chuggers scored with a long shot. But unlike their opponents, the Skins managed to stop leaking goals until the diminutive Chuggers speedster broke his way through the defence and claimed a second goal for the visitors with about 15 minutes left. The Skins stood strong where others would’ve faltered. The 4-2 win enabled the Skins to stay in touch with the leaders, with Aaron Watson claiming the Man of the Match award.

Things don’t get any easier with a physical away match against the top of the table Naenae Hypocrites on the cards. Last time the two sides met the Skins were humbled, but that was a holiday weekend and the Skins can hopefully take plenty of confidence with them from last week.

The Skins are back in the Game!

Marist Skins recovered from their worst defeat in years to beat the Lower Hutt City side 3-0 in their Div 9 game at Fraser Park on Saturday. In warm and dry conditions, this game was always going to take its toll and luckily the Skins had more players and managed to make the most of their opportunities better than the home team.

Playing with the sun at their backs, the green and whites lost Dan Popham early to injury, but had more opportunities than their hosts. Eventually striker Ben McCorkindale converted the pressure into a goal. The Lower Hutt defender chasing a ball back, panicked and Corks was able to pounce and shoot past an approaching goalie.

The Hutt side still had their chances, but a combination of good Skins defence, a couple of great saves by evergreen keeper Ray Hardy and some poor finishing after great lead up work cost the hosts.

At halftime the game was in the balance at 1-0, but the deserved buffer created when Jim Boutcher pounced on a goalkeeping error to slot the 2-0 goal was welcome relief for the visitors. The game then reached a stalemate as both teams struggled in the heat. The Skins eventually scored another and was created by good lead up work down the left and when Jim Boutcher cut a pass to substitute bull terrior striker Tim Pate who danced around the keeper and slotted it with his left peg, the result was beyond doubt.

The 3-0 result was a fair reflection, but both teams created some great opportunities and on another day and maybe a completely flat pitch, could've scored more goals.

Still, it was played in good spirits and was thoroughly enjoyable!

Game One The Skins Dominate

The Marist Skins got their 2009 campaign off to a comfortable 5-0 win over Petone on Saturday at Kilbirnie Park. This was true early season football with plenty of mistimed strikes and tired legs, but new signing Oliver Davie got the ball rolling with an early goal from a nice pass from stalwart Ray Hardy.

The Skins dominated with the strengthening northerly and finally made it count when a lobbed shot/cross by Ben McCorkindale sailed into the back of the net past everyone including the gutsy away goalie who gave a good account of himself.

It was difficult to know how many goals were in the northerly, but once the speedy Davie bagged two more, then the result seemed beyond reach of Petone.

Petone were always threatening on the counter thanks to the strong breeze, but often they turned over possession and left gaps in midfield for some gradually improving Skins passing to capitalise on. Enigmatic Tim Pate bagged the final goal after a break from Davie who then fed Pate who nutmegged the goalie from close range.

The match was played on a hard and fast pitch conditions and fatigue often left big gaps in midfield. The Kilbirnie track allowed for space up the flanks, but the cricket pitch area saw some interesting tumbles take place.

The Skins look forward to hosting Naenae next week. At this early stage this game looks crucial after Naenae had a 7-2 win in their opening game. Easter weekend is always an interesting time with player availability in question.

Be Warned, This Will Happen in Wellington This Winter!

Football starts this weekend for me as the team I manage (Marist Skins) take on the Petone formerly JJs at Kilbirnie Park at 12:30pm. We have added some spark from last year as the older team members slowly hang up the boots making way for newbies to take over the mantle. I have no doubt that this will happen somewhere around Wellington this season. Polish keeper Artur Boruc did nothing to enhance his reputation against Northern Ireland. It is similar to English keeper Paul Robinson's gaffe against Croatia, but not as bad as the ball boggled uncontrollably higher and this match was a friendly compared with the pressure cooker England vs Croatia in 2006. Given the poor state of the capital's football fields, this is not beyond the realms of possiblity and hopefully we are not on the receiving end.

Yawn, the End of the Season!

In an amazing swing in momentum the Capital 8 season finished with a whimper only one game after being the most exciting season on record. The problem was that six weeks separated the last two official games, causing a general overall lack of enthusiasm. The once bright healthy looking carrot of promotion was moved out of reach after the second round of games were rendered void and the Skins moved from one point outside promotion to midtable obscurity after one outrageous call by Capital Soccer. In the end we only had three games not played and surely it would've made more sense to double the last three results from the first round, rather than having results of played matches scrapped. This left the last game a friendly and made the Marist Skins wonder what might have been with several results over top teams considered a waste of time.

The final match was a friendly against Lower Hutt. It is difficult to get a realistic reflection of the match. We changed both our formation and positions, but who is to say that Lower Hutt didn't too? They beat us 2-1, but since the result didn't count, there was not a heck of a lot to get out of this one for anyone. We had an official referee for a change and Jimmy broke his duck finally with a nice shot. Apart from that, it was hardly an epic.

Time is quickly running out for the Skins long term plans of Central League in 2019!

Not a bang but a whimper

A 2-1 friendly defeat to Lower Hutt closed out the season. It was fun to play, but not especially memorable in any way except one: Jimmy's duck-breaking strike 20 minutes from the end, maintaining the suspense as long as possible by hitting the underside of the bar on its way over the line.

Oh well. Tournament next week. Updates may even appear here. You never know.

Skins 3-3 Tawa Bears

This was two points dropped, but after the way the game changed mid-way through the second half, it had stopped being a proper contest anyway.
The first half was in the Skins' favour. More possession, and a few good chances, but nothing too dominant. The Bears certainly looked dangerous through their quick striker (number 13) and the skilful and powerful midfielder (number 3). But Mark was posing many questions down the left that the right full back struggled to answer. The defence generally looked solid, and with Marshall's distribution and Aaron's running and positional sense, it looked encouraging. No goals at half time, due to their good keeping and our mixed finishing. The rugged ground did not help the control and passing of either team.
The first goal was simply a blinder, Ray hammering home with a mighty shot at a difficult angle. Tawa's equaliser came from good passing and direct running.
Then there was the second Marist goal. Simply put, the ball was lifted over the defence, Ray latched onto it and squared for Stephen to tuck it home. However, the reason Stephen was still unmarked was because the defence had decided there was at least one offside during the attack and had stopped to abuse the ref for not stopping play. After that, the game descended into farce. Every decision was argued, the Bears' goalkeeper decided to threaten Ray with a raised elbow and foul play was rife. Ray scored a fine second to put the Skins 3-1 up with 10 minutes left, but then defensive lapses in concentration allowed Tawa back in. First to get one back and then to equalise in the dying moments, with a practiced - but predictable - free kick.
Ray's finishing was the treat of the day, with Dan's superbly timed tackles and Thomas' well-struck clearances also highlights, but this was not a game to look back on fondly.