PETONE PURE 3 – BNU PRETENDERS 5
A plethora of goals against Petone Pure…
The BNU Pretenders were relieved to see (temporary) mascot Jenny Hodder sitting on the sidelines today – she dragged herself from her sick bed to show some athletic support from her special camping chair.  And what a game… the goals came thick and fast!

Early on, you could be forgiven for thinking it might not go in BNU’s favour, because we went 1-0 down to an early Petone goal.  Fair to say that it was against the run of the ball, and Petone made the most of their one chance.  This was to be a common theme, as we were to fall victim to two more counter-attacks in the next 90 minutes (just to keep the supporters entertained – honest!).

BNU were not fazed as we continued to do a lot of the running and played some very good football (so the coach said).  Most of the attacking action was by BNU and sure enough, the equaliser soon came off Jess’s boot as she made a speedy run into the box and unleashed a powerful shot that easily bypassed the keeper – nice.  This gave us the confidence we needed and we harassed the girls in blue for the rest of the game…

The ref took his job very seriously throughout (when questioned, he let us know he’d been to referee school – oooooh!).  But it takes more than a ‘whistle-blowing diploma’ to impress us girls – judgement will be reserved until the final whistle had been blown… ;-) 

In hindsight, maybe more refs should go to this school (?) because his calls went in our favour on at least two occasions.  A free kick was awarded just outside the box and Jules took a long shot at goal which was just tipped outside the post by a diving keeper (so close). 

We were finally rewarded when Meg made a promising run into the box, only to be barged off the ball by an over-zealous Petone defender.  There were no adamant shouts for a foul (in fact, rumour has it that Meg was none the wiser!?) but this wasn’t going to get past our overly officious ref – oh no!  He blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot…  (Jules stepped up – 1-2 to BNU).

The one goal lead was short-lived when Petone snatched an equaliser early in the second half.  Not to be outdone, we regained our lead quickly when Jo tapped the ball into a very busy Petone box and Naomi kept her cool and lobbed the goalie – result!  But, (you guessed it), in no time at all it was 3-3… aargh!

The yo-yo scoreline was all getting a bit tedious… 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3….. will it ever end??? YES! BNU finally put two more nails in the Petone coffin to seal a 3-5 away victory.  Jo made a long run from just past the half way line, and with defenders snapping at her heels, she fired an outstanding shot that gave us a 3-4 lead… and with about 10 minutes to go, Jess headed the ball towards the box, it bounced nicely for Jules who ran with the ball before thumping another long range shot past the keeper into the bottom right corner.

Player of the day was Michelle who never stopped working, and provided that much needed solid link between defence and mid-field…  All in all, a good team effort – our work was done.

Julia Jones