BNU PRETENDERS 5 – TAWA 0
A top performance against Tawa…

Aaah well – where to start?  Let me count the goals…   Five for us, and none for them!

It’s always good to see a clean sheet, and this was our second of the season.  This was in no small way down to a solid back four and a very impressive performance from our resident goalkeeper, Toni.  She dominated the box with clear calls and confidently came out for balls which limited Tawa’s attacking options.  Not least was an outstanding save within the first five minutes when she was one-on-one with their striker (Toni’s super-fast reflexes won out).  That was the scare we needed – this might not be a walk in the park, and we knew that Tawa were a force to be reckoned with… 

[It is perhaps at this point that I should point out that Tawa started the game with 10 players, and injury meant they also had 10 for some of the second half].  Surely a win was in our sights..?

We worked hard throughout the game, and sure enough, the goal scoring opportunities came our way…  First up, Jess’s pace down the right wing was too much and she followed it with a precision-perfect cross to Jules who calmly slotted it past the keeper (1-0).  As usual, Jo was doing her fancy footwork in the mid-field, and took her chance on the edge of the box with a shot that sneaked its way into the bottom right corner (2-0).  Then, the Tawa box was a bit busy, and Jess headed the ball in, which bounced nicely for Jules who powered a half-volley past the keeper (3-0).  We didn’t let the intermittent counter-attacks from Tawa worry us too much… (although they did look a bit dangerous on the odd occasion!).  At half time, we had a cushion of 3 goals…  Into the second half, Jules fluffed a prime chance (inches from the post) but was rewarded when Tawa did a very soft goal kick followed by a lame pass across the Tawa goalmouth, which she intercepted and fired the ball into an open goal.  (Hattrick! Woohoo! 4-0).  Finally, it was only a matter of time for Jess, and what a corker!  A speedy runaway opportunity saw her on her own up front, and she wasted no time as the ball whistled past the keeper into the back of the net (Result! 5-0). 

Aside from the goals, it was a joy to behold as mid-field swapped expertly between attacking and defensive formations: Jenny Moore and Kirsten both had a spell in mid-field, and fed promising balls into the Tawa box; Meg made a crucial goal mouth block as well as a shot on target at the other end; and it was also good to see Jenny Hodder back in action after recovering from her exotic disease scare…

And so it was, on a winning high, and with a few beers under our belts, we hung out in the sun watching the Div One team… Naturally enough, we got chatting about how we might be able to vamp up our image, and the general consensus was that we might be a bit too ‘mainstream’.  Even though Anita was showing off her go-faster stripes today (aka highlights), we definitely need ‘a bit of an edge’.  And so it shall be – Anita will start wearing a bandana!  Essential criteria:  wear it with style, correct width, cool pattern and attitude (perhaps a bit of a ‘bad’ one!?!).  Bring on Wainuiomata and Little Miss Slide Tackle…(!?). 

Safe to say that we will monitor this new bad-girl image tactic in the next game and see if it helps us become ‘the team not to be messed with’ in Div Four…

Jules