BNU Masters 3 v Uni Bombers, 22/5/10 at Raroa
1-2 (HT 1-1)

If Team A beats Team B 7-2 one week, then Team A get thrashed 8-0 by Team C the next week, how is Team B going to approach the following week's match against Team C? Hoping for rain didn't quite work; it rained just enough for the game to be transferred from the cosy familiarity of Team B's Happy Valley home to the bleak wastelands of Raroa.

So there we were at the start of the game, a bare 11 waiting for reinforcements and anticipating a long afternoon of chasing shadows and taking kick-offs. But football is a funny game (I'll attribute that cliche to Jimmy Greaves) and although Uni got an early goal it turned out to be a very close match. The pace of their attack which we'd be warned about wasn't really there - they did have a skilful striker who was a handful but mostly worked alone, and a couple of youngish central midfielders who were strong and tackled hard but didn't push very far forward. We made frequent attacks as their defence tended to hang back, and we should have created more chances given the amount of possession we had, particularly in the second half.

Uni scored early when their main striker got to the goal-line down the right and crossed to the far post for an easy header by their left-winger, but we settled down after that and played a more controlled game. We had to put up with some nonsense slide-tackling from the younger Uni guys - the Western Suburbs ref from last week would probably have pulled out a virtual yellow card for a couple of these but this week's ref (the son of one of our guys) couldn't really be expected to go about putting the hard word on guys twice his size. We made a lot of moves down the right wing with Cliff doing much of the work, which may have been a function of the wind because in the second half we mostly attacked down the left, now with Stu heavily involved. Ian and Paul B each had a go from distance at catching the keeper off his line, but overhit it, and we forced a series of corners by putting balls behind their backline which they scrambled clear. Most of these corners were from the right, with Paul G getting his head on one which was stopped by a full-back on the line, and Craig picked up a half-cleared corner to shoot from the edge of the box but went wide. Eventually we got a corner on the left. Ian's attitude is that this is essentially a direct free-kick from an acute angle, and curled the ball over the keeper and in at the far post. Phil almost got another a few minutes later when he beat a few players on the edge of the box and hit a hard left-foot drive at the near post which the keeper managed to stop. Uni didn't have many chances after their early goal - just a couple of mishit shots from near the edge of the box which Mike R could just let go wide.

We started the second half well and put the Uni defence under pressure for quite a while, but kept losing possession when we needed just one more decent pass to get into a threatening position. Paul G and Jeremy almost got on to a ball played through the defence but the keeper got there at the same time and gave his defence time to get back and cover. Paul G also went very close with a header from a Paul B cross - jumping back and up to get to the ball and just missing the far post. However, on one of the occasions when we lost possession when we shouldn't have, Uni were able to get into our box quickly. Although we stopped the first attack, in the ensuing melee the ball flicked on to a forearm and the ref had to give a penalty. This was taken without finesse - a direct blast which Mike R got a hand to but couldn't stop.

We continued pressing forward but the moves kept breaking down, and a couple of times the moves broke down so early that Uni could counterattack. Mike R made two great one-on-one saves to keep us in the game. Very late, we got a free-kick in their half, which Paul B chipped nicely to the back of the pack in the box, and Ian had a chance to head in an equaliser but didn't get enough contact to put it on target.

Our fears of getting hammered were unfounded, and it was a game we could have won if we got the simple things right.

Ian Smart