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High drama at Waikaraka!Chris Green Sunday, July 01, 2001 08:51 GMT
Probably, possibly our best game of the season - at least our best second-half anyway! Takapuna Grammar made life very difficult for us in the first half, and we were kept on the backfoot until Micah scored a superb goal to give us the lead. Takapuna, who had set up camp in our half in the first twenty minutes, hit back with a relatively soft goal. Referee Adams had done a good job of keeping the play clean throughout the first half, and half-time came with the scores still locked at one apiece. After an inspiring half-time lecture, the MPS lads really turned up the intensity. The referee (from Takapuna) did b*gger all to stop the quick deterioration of play, as innocuous slide-tackles and blatant pushing, elbowing etc etc became increasingly acceptable. While the MPS guys got fired up and aggresive from a particularly heated 10 minutes early in the second half, Takapuna went limp. Michael Park dominated the entire half, though despite a few pearler corners (from yours truly) and numerous one-on-ones against the Taka keeper, we couldn't convert the possesion into goals. With ten minutes to go, things were looking desperate. Up steps Valentin! Two goals in nearly as many minutes suddenly gave us an almost unbeatable advantage. Ivan came out of goal, and Taka got one back - again, hardly a great goal, but a goal nevertheless. Two nervewracking final minutes later, the ref blew his whistle. 3-2! Having made a quality team look ordinary was one of the most satisfying aspects. Losing Micah and Valentin for the rest of the season will unfortunately cripple us - we'll miss you both. Other than that, it was an exciting game to play in, and it was good to see everyone perform so well under such intense pressure! Half an hour after the match, the adrenaline was still pumping.
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