The Premmy Files – Week 17

Here we are with only two Premiership games to talk about. Two very good Premiership games but at the same time it’s a chance to catch your breath before the rollercoaster hits that downward surge. This was the last of the split gameweeks and after this there are only three more regular rounds remaining before the semis and the final. She’s full steam ahead now, friends.

Hawke’s Bay United travelled north to meet Eastern Suburbs in the televised game with Suburbs forced onto their old alternate/refugee home ground of Riverhills Park after Madills Farm was booked out with Round the Bays going on. Yeah, Premiership football. So it goes. Suburbs welcomed Kelvin Kalua back into the team after his suspension while Stafford Dowling got a first start for the club at left back. Kingsley Sinclair was also back in the main eleven and otherwise it was as per for the Lilywhites. As for HBU, they brought James Hoyle back at CB for Kaeden Atkins while Angus Kilkolly started up front as Ihaia Delaney missed his first start of the season (he still came on off the bench), and Gavin Hoy was back in there too. Plus young fella Kenny Willox made a maiden start after coming off the bench the last three games. No Josh Signey though.

HBU began this one quite nicely by pressing high up the park and putting some pressure on the Suburbs defence. Ahinga Selemani looked the most dangerous but he wasn’t alone in bringing the threat. Only problem was that they forgot to score while they were tensing things up and soon enough they tired and eased off, with Suburbs thus obliging by taking more initiative. Adam Thurston was the big fella there. The former HBU midfielder was damn near untouchable, skipping around players like they were training cones. Naturally he was the one who eventually set up the opening goal... although as nice as his ball into the box may have been it was the dummy step over from Reid Drake that really made it matter. That’s what allowed it to run through for the overlapping dash of Stafford Dowling who then slipped it past the keeper.

Dowling brought a really cool element to the left side for Suburbs. Michael Built has had a great season too so it ain’t about comparing abilities here but Dowling is a player that loves to run at defenders. He was great as a right winger/defender for Hamilton Wanderers last season doing exactly that and it’s just fun to watch a guy with that level of confidence. Anyway, Suburbs made it 2-0 in the 24th minute, only seven minutes after the first goal, when Campbell Strong lifted one into the box from out right and HBU keeper Ruben Parker had a bit of a ‘mare as he tried to tip it over the crossbar and instead tipped it into the crossbar and the ball fell for Alec Solomons to put it away.

Not really how the Bay would have planned it with their playoff hopes on the line. They did come out after the break with a bit of a lift, Jorge Akers cutting in a couple times from the wing, but then Martin Bueno put one away in the 64th minute to make it 3-0. Bueno had been increasingly sharper as the game went along and the more involved Marty Bueno is, the more defenders get frazzled around him (for various reasons). This goal was his 11th of the Premmy season to go with the six he scored in three Champs Lge games. Remarkable run of form for that dude. And with a three goal lead, that was just about that for Eastern Suburbs.

Or so you might have thought. But Gavin Hoy curled in a beautiful goal before Angus Kilkolly’s shot took a big deflection and suddenly out of nowhere a five minutes rush and this game was back to 3-2 and in the balance. Yeah... but then Adam Cowan got himself sent off for launching in late on Bueno for a second cheese slice and Suburbs were able to finish it off in stoppage time when Adam Thurston scored from the penalty spot after sub Matt Palmer had drawn the foul. Hawke’s Bay made a decent go of it in the end but were outmatched by a stronger team. Kenny Willox looks useful in the midfield though, while Sam Wall made a Premmy debut off the bench, graduating from their 2019 NYL squad. Chuck in guys like Kaeden Atkins, Jorge Akers, and Ihaia Delaney and there are some quality young kiwi players coming through here if they can retain them moving forwards (which is always a question, the amount of ex-HBU players spread around the league makes for a long list). Ah but no team has conceded more goals than Hawke’s Bay this season in a continuation of the leakiness of last term and their semi-final hopes will officially be over if they don’t win all three of their remaining fixtures (or if Eastern Suburbs win even one of theirs).

This was a big win for Suburbs though. Back to winning ways after losing to Waitakere and Team Welly on either side of their Champions League trip and it puts them back in pole position for fourth place, three points clear of the three teams stuck on 19 points... a very useful buffer with Auckland City on the cards next week (in a possible preview of the semi-final). Tony Readings’ team are a dangerous lot. In Marty Bueno they have the form striker on the comp while guys like Adam Thurston and Reid Drake are in excellent form. They got really fine contributions from young fellas Campbell Strong, Kelvin Kalua, and Kingsley Sinclair here too. Not a team that anyone’s looking forward to playing.

Then in our other game it was the Wellington Phoenix reserves hosting Tasman United, neither having had a lot to do recently. The WeeNix hadn’t played since mid-February when they were the curtain raiser up in Auckland at Eden Park versus Hamilton Wanderers while Tasman at least had a game the week after where they beat Auckland City in a brilliant upset in Nelson. Neither of them played last week.

For the WeeNix, an A-League away game meant limited scraps from the top side to feast upon but the full fitness of Gary Hooper has meant Ben Waine’s popped up a little more regularly for the ressies lately, he was the main man up top in this one. Callan Elliot at fullback and Liam McGing at centreback also made appearances (McGing’s 10th and Elliot’s 9th). It was an unchanged midfield from the Eden Park game, Ronan Wynne lined up at the back to maintain his record of having started every game... and at left back was Harry Bark making his third National League start of the season. No Kurtis Mogg. Tasman on the other hand were completely and justifiably unchanged from the win over ACFC. Another gig for Lucas Hogg at fullback. A third game together for the Fox Slotemaker/Sam Wilson pairing that had won both their first two as a CB partnership.

The WeeNix started well, looking to feed that ball in behind for Benny Waine... though they copped it in the 13th minute as Jean-Philippe Saiko continued his top form for Tasman, thwacking in a volley to give the visitors the lead – a win and Tasman would stay level with Eastern Suburbs even as Suburbs won their own simultaneous game. Count that as the New Caledonian striker’s eight of the season and his seventh in his last seven games. He looked like a great signing when they first got him and after getting past an initial settling in period, during which to be fair the whole team was struggling, he’s proving to be exactly that.

Tasman almost doubled their lead in the 21st minute but for an oversized crossbar while Waine did get on the end of one at the other end five mins later but he was ruled offside. However there were no such obstacles in the 29th minute. Another ball in behind the lines and Ben Waine slipped it past Nick Stanton in goal to level things up. Ben Waine doing Ben Waine things by scoring Premiership goals at will. This was the start of a real spell of pressure to close the half from the WeeNix too, Riley Bidois shooting just wide and Waine again looking dangerous with his speed and movement... but Tassie know how to defend with their backs to the wall and took it level into the break.

Luis Toomey struck the post for the Nix before Saiko had a penalty shout declined. Not a lot else going on early in the second half, not until Stanton made a wonderful save to deny Callan Elliot. But there was plenty going on in the final quarter of this match. First Ben Waine scored his second of the arvo as he slotted in from an Elliot cutback following a nice run from the WeeNix fullback before, in the 74th minute, Ben Old and Jean-Philippe Saiko had a bit of a clash. Old was booked for his challenge but Saiko was sent off for his reaction. Pretty horrible for Tasman who not only were reduced to ten men in a game they were trailing but now their top scorer will be suspended for next week too in what’s looking like a must-win game against Hamilton Wanderers. But it got even worse because two quick yellows for Matt Tod-Smith and he was off too. The fourth and fifth red cards of Tasman’s season and no surprises that they haven’t won any of those games.

Ben Waine then scored a late third to complete the hatty. The sixth hat-trick of this Premmy season - Myer Bevan, Joel Stevens, Dylan Sacramento, Blake Driehuis, and Martin Bueno with the others. The game ended 3-1 with the WeeNix going ahead of Hawke’s Bay on the ladder as a result and Tasman leaving themselves with a lot of work to do over the last three weeks if they’re to make a first ever finals appearance.

Ben Waine though... damn. These are the games he’s played this season...

  • Team Welly in W3 – two goals in a 2-2 draw

  • Eastern Subs in W8 - one goal in a 2-2 draw

  • Team Welly in W11 – no goals in a 1-0 defeat

  • Auckland City in W13 – one goal in a 3-2 defeat

  • Tasman in W17 – three goals in a 3-1 win

So... at least they finally won one for him. Ben Waine scored 8 goals in 17 apps last season and this time he’s scored 7 goals in just 5. And look at that list again, the fella only shows up for the big games. His first four starts all came against the three most recent champions of this competition yet he was still scoring goals all the way. He’s in a tricky situation at the mo’ with the top side, stuck behind two import strikers who are doing so well for the top team and not yet good enough to oust the more versatile attacking options on the bench but at the same time he keeps proving over and over again that he’s too good for reserve team footy too. Just gotta keep waiting and learning until his next chance comes along.

Also a shout out to Noah Karunaratne who made his Premmy debut off the bench for the WeeNix. He had been playing youth footy for Dandenong Thunder over in Aussie before the Nix invited him to move (back?) to Aotearoa and Jose Figueira had a look at him for the U17s, though he didn’t make the squad for the World Cup. Tell you who did though: Henry Hamilton, Ben Old, Harry Bark, Max Drake, and Kris Naicker... who have all played Premmy footy for the WeeNix this season with Hamilton, Old, and Bark starting this very game. Also chuck in Jesse Randall who is a locked on starter for Tasman and same deal for Campbell Strong with Eastern Suburbs... while Marko Stamenic has been getting good minutes for Team Welly but word is he’s currently off trialling in Denmark. Matt Garbett was also in that U17 squad and has already made his senior debut for Falkenbergs in Sweden. Talk about stacked.

And while that may have been all there was for Premiership footy this week, we cannot ignore Auckland City’s efforts over in Tahiti as they sought to crack the knockouts of the OFC Champions League for about the billionth time in a row. Which of course they did with a perfect winning record and without conceding a goal in any of their three matches... though it was harder this week than the 6-0 beat down they handed out to Ricki Herbert’s Ba last week.

Their second game shaped as the toughest of the lot against group hosts AS Venus (Tahiti). As such there was minimal rotation at play with a spot in the quarters pretty much guaranteed if they could win here. Mario Bilen and Clayton Lewis came in for Alfie Rogers and Logan Rogerson with a couple others shuffling around to make it all fit and that was it.

As expected, AS Venus put up a mighty challenge against City in front of their home fans. City were able to create their usual level of pressure leading to shots but Venus were making things happen down the other end of the park too. Both teams should have scored inside the first ten minutes. City cocked it up by overplaying it after Lewis had sliced the defence open with a cutting pass to Emiliano Tade while Venus almost took advantage of a slippery Conor Tracey as he came out for a ball which he couldn’t quite hold onto without sliding out of the penalty area. He had to cough it up and a striker ran off with it but Teaonui Tehau took too many touches and Tracey leapt in front of him to punch it out for a corner. Dramatic beginnings.

City had a few nice halfies along the way but they really should’ve scored when Bevan dropped a bit of hesitation to go around his marker on the byline and square it to Tom Doyle who took an air swing facing an open goal. But in the 42nd minute they found what they were looking for. This time Bevan did it himself... with the help of a Clayton Lewis return pass over the defensive line which Bevan stretched out to put past an onrushing keeper. In all competitions that’s now 16 goals in 17 games for Myer Bevan in Auckland City colours (or, rather, 18 games since he didn’t score in the next game).

There was some hilarious kerfuffling early in the second half as Clayton Lewis caught a stray boot in a challenge and then may or may not have given the bloke a shove on his way past, with the Venus player collapsing in a heap. Some teammates for both gassed it to the scene of the alleged crime and three different players ended up getting booked including Lewis. Gotta rate his ‘Who, Me!?’ reaction, staring over his shoulder to see who the card was really meant for. Surely not, ref.

This game continued to be pretty tetchy the rest of the way. Lots of work for the ref to do to keep tempers down. All the while Auckland City were reaching for a second goal that would seal the deal but they couldn’t find it. Myer Bevan came closest with a low, curling free kick near the end but somehow it didn’t sneak in... meanwhile AS Venus were causing panics at the back any time they could unleash their speedy strikers but their two or three best chances they came up with rotten finishes each time, letting ACFC off the hook. 1-0 was the way it ended, somehow.

Thus it was Lupe Ole Soaga SC (Samoa) in their third and final group game, a team that were assumed to be the lightweights of the group yet who caused a big upset in beating Ba 4-3 on the second matchday – the first ever win at this stage of the competition by a Samoan team.

They did alright against ACFC too but alright still meant a comfortable enough win for ACFC. Here they really rolled the changes with Cameron Brown starting as keeper for his first appearance for the senior team while Adam Mitchell joined him after being on the bench the first two OCL games – thus ensuring every player in Jose Figuiera’s 18 man squad got game time. Dylan Manickum, Andrew Blake, Alfie Rogers, and Logan Rogerson also came into the starters with Cam Howieson, Brian Kaltack, and Jordan Vale the only three to start all three games in Tahiti.

City were back in their more comfortable habitat of controlling the game at a slower tempo and absolutely strangling the other team out of any reasonable chances. It was only late on in this one that Browny had a decent save to make. Up until then it was merely a matter of how long the Samoan side could hang on for and the answer to that was about thirty minutes. Then Howieson chipped one to the far post for Brian Kaltack to header in. Dylan Manickum would add a second in the second half as he beat the LOS defence with a classy finish after beating the keeper to a loose ball outside the box. An otherwise uneventful game for the most part but that’s exactly what City would have wanted with a tough game back at Kiwitea Street against Eastern Suburbs next week. Jose seemed pretty chuffed with three games and three clean sheets as well as safe passage through to the knockouts.

So both kiwi sides made it through with home field advantage for the quarters, which won’t take place until after the Premiership season although when exactly that is is up in the air at the moment with Oceania Football postponing “all tournaments, workshops, training and courses” until the second week of May because of COVID-19. Assuming that includes this so yeah dunno. See how it goes.

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