http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml WOODLEIGH SOCCER CLUB - UNOFFICIAL SITE: Club news Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:15:19 -0500 http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/4c0f4a07e19db385532fd30d4ed70fa2_48b39f77.writeback Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:15:19 -0500 This was a game we had been focusing on for quite a while. The rain held off and there was a bit of a breeze but conditions weren't too bad. The team was the same as the previous week against Moturoa, apart from the subs. Jordan and Michael were both unavailable so we had Cam from the second team as our twelth man. FDMC started with the breeze at their backs in the first half and they did most of the early pressing but by and large our defence coped. They had a lot of pace and we had to be at our best to stop them getting in behind us too often.On one occasion early on in the match Thomas Mosquera did manage to get away from our defence and got on the end of a good cross but couldn't get his header on target. FDMC did take the lead after the half hour when a corner was only partially cleared and one of their players on the edge of the box rammed an unstoppable shot into the net, 0-1. Woodleigh rallied a bit after that and although we failed to score we did create problems for the school team. Halftime score, 0-1. The second half saw Woodleigh start on the front foot. We used the wind well and Sam was bombing their defence with his kicks right from the off. We were winning a lot of corners and that was where our equaliser came from. Danny swung a kick into the box and Mark met the ball with a thumping header giving the FDMC keeper no chance, 1-1. However the game turned on its head shortly after that as FDMC hit us with two goals in a very short space of time. They retook the lead after Mosquera intercepted a loose pass near our penalty area and from his low cross one of his teammates headed the ball home past Sam. The killer third arrived shortly afterwards when from a corner Dom Squatiri glanced a header in at the near post past myself and Sam, 1-3.At this point we could have caved but it says something about us that we didn't. In fact for the rest of the game FDMC ended up hanging on. Sam continued to hammer their defence with his long kicks and it was from another corner we won that we got our second goal. Shaun this time delivered a great cross and Danny was there to get his head on it. The ball bounced down and then in, 2-3.We went hunting for a third and headers from Glynn and Mark were close and Dave, who harried their back four constantly, had the ball around the keeper after nicking it away from him but a defender cleared it away. The final chance came with three minutes left. After some good possession around the edge of their box, Brian squared a good pass to Glynn who ran onto the ball, but his shot went wide. We tried to keep the pressure on them but they managed to keep us further upfield and the ref blew for fulltime not long after. Disappointing to lose like that, but it was a good cup tie and we didn't disgrace ourselves. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/3c3977ae23097ff7d245acd987cbb7a2_48abf3a6.writeback Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:36:22 -0500 Another home game for us and it was a chance to get one over on an old rival. The game kicked off in cold but fine conditions. Apart from the cricket pitch, the ground was in good condition. After an initially strong opening from the visitors, Woodleigh settled and produced some good football, stretching Moturoa at times with good passing and movement. Glynn went close to scoring our first goal with a curling effort which was going in but the Reds' keeper got a hand to it to push the ball away for a corner. We had several good chances from corners, Mark and Danny both getting heads to the ball but just failing to get their respective chances on target.0-0 at halftime and we were happy with our effort. In the second period Moturoa lifted their effort and caused us some problems at the back, but it was from a penalty that they took the lead after Jason was judged to have pulled back an opponent in the box.Scott Manson blasted home the spotkick to make it 0-1.Our response was almost immediate though and Allan finished off an excellent freekick move from the left which was taken by Jason.He hit a long cross to the far side of the goalmouth where Glynn met the ball with his head and sent it back across the six yard box to Allan, and he calmly tucked the ball away, 1-1. After that the game moved from end to end quite nicely. With time running out,Jason made a couple of changes to try and win the game, shifting himself out of defence and going to a 3-4-3 formation from 4-4-2.Jordan replaced Brian and a bit later Michael came on for Allan. Unfortunately the team failed to adapt to the changes and it was an error by young Michael that led to Moturoa's late winner, after his weak pass was pounced on and the ball was fed to Anthony Ander who cooly beat Sam to make it 1-2. So it was disappointing to lose but with our play in the first half particularly, it augurs well for our cup game with Francis Douglas next weekend. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/50bdaf7efcf8f29843615a525139b081_48a274e6.writeback Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:45:10 -0500 The weather was not too bad for this game, just a cold wind. Shaun returned to the team and their was a start for Mark Byelich in midfield due to the absence of Glynn. Boys High had most of the possession early on and looked to get on the scoreboard early but our defending as a team was good and they didn't create any outstanding chances, resorting to shooting from long range, no shots really testing Sam.Woodleigh became more of an attacking threat as the half wore on but again no clear scoring chances were created. There could have been goals in the second half for both sides but good blocks and smart saves kept it goalless.Shauns freekick in the second half was probably the pick of our chances, his kick curling a foot past the post, their keeper stranded.Boys High had a shot clip the angle of cross bar and post.Final score 0-0. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/06d0eb3d281507a1778d0fbc4535b3c7_4897f4d3.writeback Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:36:03 -0500 Another rainsoaked day at home was the setting for our final chance(probably), of staying in the promotion race.By the end of the day we were left to ponder the " what if's". Because of an early kick-off we were denied the services of our captain, Glynn, who couldn't make the game because of work commitments.Gone too from the team was Shaun, injury and illness sidelining him.Jordan also was missing. So that meant a bare eleven players for the most important of games. Young Michael Putt made his first start, playing in defence and Shane also stepped up for us. Kaponga started brightly, putting early pressure on us and enjoying good territory early on. It was they that scored first too when an error by myself in failing to cut out a pass forward allowed one of their forwards to take on Sam and score, 0-1. We rallied well though and not long after were back level after we scored indirectly from a corner. The ball fell for Dave in the box and he drove the ball goalwards,Shane getting the vital touch to turn it in, 1-1. Jason nearly put us ahead a bit later as he curled a good shot just wide of goal. Halftime saw us level then.We took the lead again in the second half when the Kaponga keeper failed to hold on to a shot by Jason and Brian was on hand to stab the ball home for his sixth of the season. We played well in the second period, lots of chances created but we couldn't score again. The closest chance game from a goalmouth melee which ended up with Shane shooting past the keeper but a defender hacked it off the line. With a quarter of an hour to play Tony was caught in possession inside his own half by the Kaponga winger on his side. I found myself in a two on one situation and though I was able to hold the winger up for a few seconds, he made a yard of space for himself and fired the ball past Sam. That was the killer blow for our season really and we should never have let our season get in this state, we only have ourselves to blame.Special mention though for Michael he was voted man of the match and had an excellent game. Also Dave was outstanding with his workrate, Allan too worked really hard, winning countless headers. Final score, 2-2. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/6ffa6b67d25e554dfdaf30be7b26a4d7_489155e8.writeback Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:04:24 -0500 Another shocking weekend for weather saw us at home against Hawera's b side. They were clearly struggling for numbers as their only sub was a 65 year old! We had no official ref for the game so Dave Savage kindly stood in. He was put to the test as well, particularly in the second half with Hawera's heavy handed approach. In the driving rain we kicked off and settled down reasonably well, passing the ball around. Hawera rode their luck on a few occasions. Keith in goal was having a good game for them and made some good saves. We went closest to scoring in the first half when Glynn's shot hit the inside of the post and bounced across goal to safety. They had a good chance also when Sam was beaten to the ball by Kris Booker, almost on the touchline and Booker curled a shot on target which I was able to head clear for a corner. 0-0 at the half wasn't really an accurate reflection of the game but Jason wasn't too unhappy with that.Hawera pressed forward early in the second half and it was a direct result of them pushing on that lead to our goal.Allan received the ball and played a nice ball down the left side for Shaun to chase. He looked up and squared a good pass for Jason to thump home. We held the lead for a while before we got caught out at the back and Kris Booker capitalised to drive a shot past Sam for 1-1. Chances still came our way and Shaun should have scored when Mitch found him in space with the keeper to beat but he hit it too close to their keeper, Keith who parried and then saved the follow-up shot from Shaun as well.The game threatened to boil over at one stage after some nasty challenges went in,Tony was left on the ground after one of them and was subbed off hurt. As the rain and cold increased our chances of winning slipped away until finally Dave blew the whistle to send us running for the showers! http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/a3f7a2cb50283a1e3348ff5f98ec371f_487c6fb6.writeback Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:36:54 -0500 Well, what a difference a week makes in football! Admittedly the opposition wasn't a great challenge but the team was able to dispatch them without a hitch. On another difficult surface Woodleigh kept the game nice and simple. In fact the pitch probably helped to keep the score down as there appeared to be several really good chances that were lost when the ball got stuck in the mud and water. Woodleigh took a very early lead when a pass from Glynn found Shaun in a good position in front of goal. With a defender in front of him, he calmly curled his shot inside the upright for his third goal of the season. Number two arrived about 20 minutes later when following a foul on Glynn near the top of the box,we were awarded a free-kick. A shot from Jason was only parried by the keeper and Danny was on hand to stab the ball home from close range.The score was 2-0 at half-time.Goal number three arrived about 15 minutes in when a cross from the left found Jason free in the box with only the keeper to beat, which he duly did for his third goal of the season. A short time later Jason made his first subs of the game. He brought himself off and put Will on in his stead.Will had made his debut the week before as a sub against Rangers Div One. Brian came off as well and Tony replaced him. About 10 minutes from the end I replaced Jared who was struggling with an injury. Goal number four belonged to Mitch who found himself with some space about 20 metres from goal. His resulting shot went in just under the crossbar and above the keepers flapping hands. A fifth goal was scored not long after when Shaun again found himself in front of goal with only the young keeper to beat. He made no mistake, despite the keeper getting something on his shot. And that was the game, a more than satisfactory response to the questions being asked after last weeks disappointment. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/328eeb7d02942f957e2118aa7edf3e2a_4871c90d.writeback Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:43:09 -0500 Weird weather, weird game.That's a brief summary of the day we had. For the second weekend in a row we had the Rangers B team at our place and the weekends couldn't have been more different,both the weather and the games. We looked in good shape when Shaun knocked in our third goal of the afternoon and at 3-0 up that should have been that.But as we have shown plenty of times before this year, we give away more presents than Santa. Rangers got one back not long after Shaun had scored,Paul Manktelow lifting a shot over Sam. Still there didn't seem too much problem, after all, we had gifted them a goal the previous saturday and had still won comfortably. When they scored their second though the alarm bells should have been loud and clear, so when they did finally score their third it seemed almost inevitable.The ref bizarrely reduced the length of the game by 20 minutes, which makes it the shortest senior game I've played in ever! Maybe though it was a blessing in disguise as we were well capable of conceding again. The weather was crazy. The hail storm in the first half was like nothing most had ever seen before, myself included.Once it started to hail it just kept going and just got harder until the referee made the decision to halt the game temporarily until it eased.It must have been 5 minutes later when we went out again with the hail still falling but lighter thankfully.Mitch scored our first goal.He fooled the keeper who was expecting a cross but Mitch caught him off balance with a shot to his near post which left him stranded.Brian continued his scoring streak with goal number two a short time later to make it 5 goals in 4 games for him. So that was the score at halftime, a quick break and we turned around for the second half.By now the hail had stopped and the sun had come out.Jared Holmes had played for us in the first half and he came off to be replaced by Glynn. Brian came off for a new lad called Will.A bit later Marty came on for Jase. We started ok and had a lot of shots but only Shaun added to our total.The rest,as they say,is history. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/19fb0ef245712baaf9009c59421b1188_4869dde6.writeback Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:33:58 -0500 I have added current stats for the 2008 season on the results page so feel free to check them out. Stat of the day - Brian Love has scored in 3 consecutive games,thats also 4 goals in 3 games for him - well done mate! http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/37e30384cb70b025a08bd094fd1e7232_4869cb5b.writeback Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:14:51 -0500 Cup football was back on saturday.We found ourselves up against Rangers' B side so it was a nice change from getting a top of the table side first up! We had a fairly strong team for the game with Danny and Liam back from injury. We continued with a 3-4-3 formation and had Tony and Liam on the sideline. I thought our play in the first half was pretty good as we retained the ball quite well.It took us a while to open the scoring but Brian put us one goal up latching on well to a rebound to score. Shaun should have made it 2-0 but skyed his shot when one on one with their keeper.There were a couple of other chances too but we had to settle for a one goal lead at halftime. Jason put Tony on at half time and brought off Jordan.About 15 minutes in to the half Liam was brought on for Shaun. We scored our second when Allan got on the end of a cross from the right to fire the ball in to the net.Goal number three came from Brian again to make it a Scottish treble for the day.We did switch off enough after that to allow Rangers a consolation goal a few minutes from the end but it mattered little as we had already booked our spot in the last eight. http://woodleighsoccer.zoomshare.com/3.shtml/a784aef7eb352ac3fee9469c28268ec4_48563f3c.writeback Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:23:56 -0500 We have waited a long time for a win but at fulltime you wouldn't have known that we HAD won, such was the feeling after surrendering a 3 goal halftime lead. The game started bizarrely with only eight Kaponga players on the field. The rest of their team having apparently gotten lost on the way to the ground. Woodleigh despite retaining huge chunks of possession at the start were not quick to capitalise on our numerical advantage and actually scored our first goal when Kaponga were at full strength. It was a well taken goal however. Glynn exchanging a neat one-two with Jason before sliding the ball past Kaponga's keeper. The second duly arrived with a sharp ball into the box from Glynn which may have been going in anyway but Brian helped it in with a flick off his heel. Our third goal came from a well worked move which culminated with a Shaun cross onto the head of Dave who guided his header into the net. So we walked off at halftime pretty satisfied with our effort and could have reasonably expected more of the same in the second half. Our bubble burst however within the first minute when we allowed them to get behind us on the left and their player showed good composure to drive a shot past Sam. This appeared to be a temporary hiccup until they struck again when a Woodleigh move broke down on the right and they switched play to the left again and duly bagged a second. Still we did not wake up and when a third goal went in we finally decided to do something about it. Glynn and Dave dropped a bit deeper and we slowly gained control again. Not before Sam had to make a smart save from their No 7. For the last half hour I think we had most of the play and plenty of chances to win the game. But it came down to the last 5 minutes before we finally cracked them. Jason combined with Mitch in their penalty area and was brought down for a spotkick. Glynn stepped up for the kick and showed good composure to send the Kaponga keeper the wrong way with a shot into the bottom left corner of the goal. Final score was 4-3 to us.