The Premmy Files – Week 6
Happy days for the folks at Tasman United. It’s been a tough old start to things in Nelson, Tassie conceding multiple goals in every game and losing all four of them over the first month of their season. They still conceded multiple goals here at home to the Wellington Phoenix… but they also won. First win of the campaign. Three beautiful points for the tally.
Of course, this was a notable game for a few folks involved. Andy Hedge used to manage the WeeNix and Keegan Smith was up against a few of his old teammates too. On the other side there was last season’s breakout player for Tasman, Callan Elliot, now a registered member of the Wellington Phoenix. It was Elliot’s buddy Ben Waine who opened the scoring though. Waine who got a senior debut with the Nix in the FFA Cup a few months back and spent a lot of preseason with the A-League side and he’s started this season very well. He, Elliot and Calvin Harris have been the shining lights for the WeeNix so far, starting every game together.
Scoring goals, particularly early goals, has not been an issue for this team. They led 1-0 against Team Welly in game one. They led 2-0 against Canterbury last week. Only been kept scoreless once and that was against Eastern Suburbs. Here they were taking the lead for the third time in five games… it’s been the stuff that comes next that kills them. They lost 4-1 to Team Welly and 3-2 to the Dragons. After leading 1-0 at HT here, Kiernan Hughes-Mason tied things up with what the Tassie twitter account referred to as a “blinder” and the WeeNix didn’t respond too well. Ahmed Othman gave the home side the lead with twenty left, having gone close minute earlier, and in the 73rd minute Cory Larsen ripped one into the top corner. Ben Waine pulled one back soon after but Tasman held on for victory. Sweet as, nice to see Tasman finally scoring some goals. Three of them in the space of twenty minutes after scoring two in the entire first 414 minutes of the season.
Worth mentioning that despite the A-League team having an international window break, this was a WeeNix side with only two senior members in the starters: Callan Elliot and Ollie Sail, with Callan yet to feature for the top team and Sail only having sat on the bench so far. Reuben Way didn’t play having previously played every minute for the reserves (I’m pretty sure – if not then close enough), while recent features Ryan Lowry, Dylan Fox, Libby Cacace and Michal Kopczynski were all unavailable.
Tasman’s win leaves Wellington Phoenix as one of two remaining winless teams. The other being Hawke’s Bay United, but as touched upon last week you can’t be too harsh on the Bay folk. Five games played against the five top teams as the table stands and the fixtures are about to take an abrupt turn for the better. Away to Team Wellington this week they bounced back from a goal behind twice to draw 2-2 with the Oceania champs. Cam Lindsay was suspended, no dramas. It was U20 international Jorge Akers who scored both goals, one in the 49th minute and another in the 80th to earn a second point of the campaign for HBU, still second to last but having already taken points off Canterbury and Team Welly.
No surprises who scored first in this game. Andy Bevin picked out Henry Cameron who picked out Hamish Watson who picked out the back of the net. The league’s top scorer with his sixth in six games, still two clear at the top ahead of Javier Lopez Iglesias who’s next in line. Nate Hailemariam added a deserved second after Akers had levelled and the feeling was that Team Welly had righted the ship and should carry on towards victory, just as they did a week ago after Southern equalised… but that didn’t happen. On came Paul Ifill and between he and Maxime Olivieri, returning from suspension, were all sorts of tricky to handle. Team Welly had more than their share of chances to kill this off and they didn’t and then Akers scored and Hawke’s Bay got a scrappy point.
Brett Angell savaged his team’s effort and performance last week in the lost to Hamilton so you’d figure he’d be happier here. Coming from behind twice in a game is always a sign of a team that really wants it. With their current record they’ll be underestimated by a fair few folks but HBU are quality. Dan Allen in the midfield has been a bloody revelation after signing from Tasman. Karan Mandair is pressing his case to make the U20 World Cup squad next year by nailing down a starting gig. They’re also a rare team in this league that can bring genuine creativity off the bench.
Also HBU didn’t get a red card this week after one in each of the last two, which is always a positive. Main issue here is the defence – at least two goals conceded in every game so far. That won’t win you much, to be honest. Only the Wellington Phoenix have conceded more. But, yeah, should get a better indication of where they’re at next week when they host Waitakere City.
As for Team Welly, they did this one without Justin Gulley at the back and maybe it showed. Jose Figueira hasn’t been shy about rotating his back three this season. It’s gone from ‘Gulley, Palezevic and Hilliar’, to a couple games of ‘Gulley, Schrijvers and Hilliar’, to two games of ‘Gulley, Schrijvers and Wood’ and now we had ‘Wood, Schrijvers and Hilliar’. But at the other end it’s just goals, goals, goals. Two more, and in the opposite of Hawke’s Bay they’ve scored at least two in every game. Five different players have scored multiple goals already – Auckland City are the only other team with four of those chaps. End of the day, however, that’s two dropped points and if ACFC win their game in hand (away to Southern – which I don’t believe has been rescheduled yet) then we’re talking a five point difference there already.
Speaking of Auckland City, with twenty minutes gone they were in big trouble at Kiwitea Street. Canterbury United had already taken the lead through Stephen Hoyle (who else?). City haven’t been at their impenetrable best yet, conceding in every game but one, but playing from behind is not really the way you wanna have to do it, you know.
Or… maybe it is, because just like last time they conceded first (Charity Cup against Team Welly), City again went on to score four goals and win the three points. No guesses as to what the turning point was: 22nd minute and Adam Thurston got his second yellow and the Cantabs, who had started the game so brightly, were down to ten men. Shame that. Ruined what might’ve been a superb contest.
To be fair, Canterbury stuck in there for most of the half, still creating a few things too… but Dan Morgan levelled it up on the brink of half-time and then Javier Lopez scored in injury time for a 2-1 lead at the break. Reid Drake made it three with fifteen minutes to go and Dylan Manickum completed the scoring in the 87th min. Third game in a row that Manickum’s scored in, by the way. Says a lot that City were without Micah Lea’alafa again and it didn’t even matter.
Credit to Drake for the goal, he’s been tasked with replacing the injured David Browne in the lineup and has gotten better with each passing week. Shout out to Hayden McHenery on a late cameo off the bench as well, his first gig for the Navy Blues. Hope to see plenty more of the lad in the near future. Auckland City are the only remaining team with a perfect record.
Canterbury, on the other hand, have now lost by multiple goals to Eastern Suburbs and Auckland City, which aren’t the teams they’re competing with for that semi-finals spot but it doesn’t say much for their chances if they get there. Then again, they were doing very well until conceding twice on the brink of the break. Enough to leave a couple what-ifs out there in the ether. Sean Liddicoat was back in the team for this game, plus Aaron Spain got his first start of the campaign. No shortage of depth at fullback in this team, that’s for sure. Might wanna do something about the eleven goals conceded in their last four games, however.
Over in our televised contest it was Southern United paying visit to Trusts Arena and Waitakere United. Lucky buggers Waitakere who have already been on telly three times from their five games, but you already know that Sky TV were all sorts of stingy with their telly schedule – unless they get a game on Sky in the latter weeks or if they make the semis then this might be the only time Southern gets broadcast on TV. Guts to you if you love seeing a cheeky run forwards by Conor O’Keeffe or a Garbhan Coughlan snap shot as much as I do.
Might as well make the most of it then. Southern were without forward Markus Fjørtoft for this one, who was suspended after a second yellow a week ago (which, poor fella, he then had to write because, scholarly fellow that he is, he also does the match reports on the Southern website: “Fifteen minutes before fulltime, Markus Fjørtoft received his second yellow of the game and Southern played the remaining game with 10 men.” – while we’re at it, Kiernan Hughes-Mason has a blog worth checking out too).
They also didn’t have the services of Omar Guardiola while Jared Grove had to be content with a spot on the bench. Getting correct lineups can be an odyssean task in the Premmy - mate, getting lineups at all is hard enough from some teams, though Southern aren’t one of them, shots to Southern - but those three changes are the first changes they’ve made to the starting XI since Guardiola replaced Ben Wade for the second game (I’m including the postponed game too). Wade, Nic Treadwell and Jacob Findlay were the folks that came in – Findlay being a graduate of their youth team making his starting debut at left back… and he looked very decent too. Well positioned, not afraid to drop a shoulder on a bugger, keen to get forward in support… picture of a modern fullback.
Waitakere, meanwhile, they hit this one up after back to back wins scoring eight goals in the process (albeit against Welly Nix & Tassie). Hot form from the westies. And with Oliver Bassett performing wizardry up front and Matty Conroy growing into his role on the opposite wing they were looking likely again at home in this one. But Southern… we all know how Southern operate. They’re the masters of the grind. Slightly concerning that Waitakere were able to find a bit much space in the final third but this one went into the half scoreless all the same.
And then out came everyone for the second half and before you had time to figure out where the mute button was again on the remote (Jacob Spoonley’s great, by the way, nothing against Jacob Spoonley), it was 1-0 to the Southerners. Abdullah Al-Kalisy picked up where he left off last week with his second goal in two games. Heavy deflection on this shot but he was also SU’s most dangerous attacker so well deserved all the same. No goal for Garbhan Coughlan though. He had a few chances, particularly in the first half, but he hasn’t really been at his best yet and is yet to find the net after scoring eight times last season. Dude’s had injuries and also Southern have only played four times but hopefully he banks a couple soon to get the confidence up. At his best he’s one of the better forwards to watch in the competition.
The lead didn’t last though. Chris Milicich threw on Andrew Abba basically immediately after the goal, taking off Alex Connor-McLean who hadn’t really been able to link up much and had missed a great headed chance in the first half. Abba’s been super sub of the season so far, scoring three times already despite not having started a game. He didn’t waste much time in skipping around defenders and causing problems. Sure enough, he played a part in the equaliser. Abba won the ball in a dangerous area, fed in Matt Conroy who beat a player and squared for Jake Butler to whack it home.
The latter stages were all Waitakere, to be fair. The hosts were unlucky not to snatch a winner, especially after an injury to Stephen Last meant Tony Whitehead dropping back into defence from the midfield. Captain O’Keeffe was a little bummed afterwards to have coughed up a lead, and can’t really blame him when tight defence is their whole thing, but at the same time they did well to hang on for a point away from home. Southern have Tasman next week in their first proper home game of the season, crazy to think they haven’t completed a homer yet, and are away to Wellington Phoenix the week after. Gotta think they’ll be targeting six points there, six points that they’ll need if they want to repeat last year’s fifth place. As for the Waitaks, they’re away to Hawke’s Bay in a crucial game because you know how HBU just came through a ruthless winless streak against the current top five? Well, Waitakere are playing those same five teams in a row after the HBU game (and they’ve already lost to Hamilton once)… albeit with a New Year’s break in the middle.
Ah yes and there was also Hamilton Wanderers hosting Eastern Suburbs. Ricki Herbert named the same starting eleven that beat Hawke’s Bay last week, same team that lost 1-0 to Southern the week before too, with the Hamiltonians seeking to build on a fantastic start as they hit a difficult three game run against Suburbs, away to Canterbury and then home to Auckland City. They had to move the game to John Kerkhof Park in Cambridge after a scheduling mishap of some sorts (god forbid national league football might ever take precedent in this country), but all goods, JK Park’s a little beauty of a ground to partake in a taste of footy. Also quite dig this little enterprise from Cambridge FC…
This game went about as expected though. It was, as Danny Hay suggested, a thoroughly professional performance from his Suburbs side. Mohamed Awad scored in the first half and then Callum McCowatt scored very early in the second half and that was that as far as a 2-0 win went. Immediately back to winning ways after losing to Auckland City on telly a week ago.
Oh yeah, and Callum McCowatt played. Replaced Kingsley Sinclair in the front three after signing during the week and you have to wonder if he might’ve made the difference last week… not that ACFC weren’t without a few key absentees too. On the topic of returning players, Michael Built also subbed in late on here for his first appearance of the season. Built actually transferred from Hamilton to Suburbs mid-season a year ago and is one of a handful of returning ES players. One more quality body in that midfield, pretty much.
Don’t really know what else to add about this game, other than that this happened, which sounds like a real laugh to have witnessed…
There were definitely chances at both ends for more goals but Suburbs have a real knack of killing games in the second half while Hamilton… they’re doing fine. They’re still fourth. They’re making it tough on oppositions every single week and when they score goals they win games… which sounds obvious but it wasn’t the case last season. This time they’ve been kept scoreless twice and lost both, hit the net multiple times in the other three and won ‘em all. Also got one of the most consistent starting teams with nine players having begun every match. The most consistent starting team by that measure, in fact. Shot, Ricki. Keep up the good work.
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