North Wellington 0-0 BNU Thirds

Scoreless draw at Alex Moore

Just like Aretha Franklin, all Capital Football are after this year is a little bit of R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and for us this means lining up in formation Champions League style, applauding the crowd (and his obligatory dog) and shaking hands with the opposition prior to kick-off.

So bemused were we with our new pre-match routine the game was already a minute old before we had all our players on the field ready to play football. As a result, we came as close as we would come during the game to conceding a goal with North Wellington’s first attack, a fairly fortunate deflection bouncing back into the keepers’ arms off the post.

Despite this slightly edgy start we slowly got back into the game, and although guilty of conceding possession too easily, it was BNU (on the break) that had the most clean cut chances that unfortunately we were not able to put away.

The second half prompted the introduction of our talisman Kev Sullivan, on a ‘pay as he plays’ contract this season due to a terrible mix up in priorities regarding his football/life balance! The change almost paid instant dividends when he found time and space in the midfield, however the final shot sailed just over the bar.

The remainder of the half seemed to descend into a petty squabble, the J’ville players crying to the ref at every mere sniff of a handball and perceived wrong-doing at every throw-in, goal kick / corner decision.
Ironically, on the introduction of the Respect campaign, the ref produced the first yellow card we’ve seen this season and amazingly it wasn’t to a BNU player.

Instead the Meatloaf lookalikey on the North Wellington side got a caution for man handling one of our players as the bad tempered game fizzled out to a 0-0 draw.

3 games into the season and we’re in a suitably comfortable mid-table position, but a glance at the teams below us (all the teams we’ve played so far) would indicate we’ve got some harder games ahead, starting with a 3 wins from 3 Lower Hutt team on Saturday.

Nigel Moore