The Premmy Files – Week 4
It’s a tough gig for Paul Temple and the Welly Nix, trying to balance competitiveness with, you know, being a reserve team playing in the National League. Their squad changes heaps from year to year and their best players are all trying to get promoted to the first team… in other words their best players would prefer not to be there. The team’s captain this week was sixteen year old midfielder Sam Sutton, who’s a pretty decent player but is also half the age of Waitakere’s captain Jake Butler.
The WeeNix did still have Reuben Way and Callan Elliot as they played hosts to the Waitaks at Westpac Stadium in the curtain raiser for the A-League game, however Michal Kopczynski was back with the top team (albeit as a reserve and not on the sub’s bench). Dylan Fox dropped down to replace Gio Stensness and they mixed up the formation a bit to be more capable in possession after being forced into very defensive mindsets against title challengers Team Wellington and Eastern Suburbs to begin the season – Max Batchelor chucked in to start and bring some size at centre-forward – but despite a couple early chances to Ben Waine and Calvin Harris they were already playing from behind when Waitakere import Oliver Bassett found way too much space down the left wing and slid one under Zac Jones’ foot at the near post. A goalie error and not Jonesy’s first this season, something you have to deal with when you’ve got a youngster wearing the gloves. Even the best prospects are gonna have their learning curves.
Waitakere handed first starts to English keeper Nick Draper and kiwi U20 international Matty Conroy but mostly they just enjoyed playing against a team they could rough up a little. Their goal came too early to be against the run of play but it’s fair to say that the WeeNix did have the better early chances. Yet Waitakere always looked a danger on the counter with the likes of Conroy, Butler, Bassett and Alex Connor-McClean all working hard. Such it was when they scored the second, Dylan Fox rushed out towards a looping clearance from David Parkinson and missed it. Next thing Conroy and Connor-McLean are gunning away on the break and a couple passes later, ACM beat Jones at his near post again. Rapid stuff on the break, exactly what Waitakere tried for but weren’t able to achieve in their first couple games.
By the way, it’s been a sharp start to the season for Alex Connor-McLean and that deserves heaps of credit. The Chatham Cup-winning Birkenhead striker was playing youth team footy for Tasman a year ago and in a league where strikers are often import players, it’s awesome to see a young kiwi getting a shot… and scoring. Hamish Watson and Andre De Jong are pretty much the only other homegrown strikers starting regularly this season.
This game might as well have been done as a contest at half-time after left-centre-back (in a back three) Ronan Wynne had pushed over Matt Conroy in the box for a penalty. Dylan Fox had played a shocker of a back pass and Wynne had to cop the ramifications. It was going to be a goal. It ended up being a goal anyway when Eder Franchini-Pasten deposited the spottie into the bottom corner. But this way the red card also came out and Wynne had to walk with Waitakere already 3-0 up.
The response was to sacrifice Batchelor and bring on Will Ebbinge in midfield and you’d have to say it paid off as the WeeNix piled on the pressure for the first ten mins of the second half, culminating in a ripping free kick from Calvin Harris to make it 3-1. The wall could’ve been tighter but the strike was ideal. Harris was easily the Nix’s most dangerous guy for the third game in a row and he’s scored both their goals this season. The minute Roy Krishna gets his citizenship and frees up an A-League import spot it’d be worth a chat with the lad to see if he wouldn’t mind postponing his studies, the fella’s a talent.
However the second goal that they needed to make a stab at it never arrived. Waitakere accepted the wake-up call and Jake Butler scored an even sweeter free kick with ten minutes left before Andrew Abba took on a few pretenders and scored a Semmy-esque individual goal to make it 5-1. A bit rough on the WeeNix, the scoreline didn’t really reflect the performance, but that’s the way it goes. First win of the campaign for Chris Milicich’s side while the Phoenix remain winless having conceded eleven times in three games.
Joining the Phoenix at the bottom of the ladder are Tasman United, the only other team without a point three weeks in. To be fair to the Tassies, they’ve already lost to both of last season’s finalists (as well as going down 2-1 against Hamilton) so maybe we haven’t seen them at their best yet. Against Team Welly they did what they could but were comfortably outplayed by a Welly team starting to really find its form after going down to AK City in the season opener.
The Tee Dubs made one change from last week, giving former Phoenix academy defender Liam Wood the start in place of Scott Hilliar. Not really too much to add about this game. It went exactly as expected. Hamish Watson and Jack-Henry Sinclair scored goals late in the first half and Team Welly won it 2-0.
A second straight clean sheet for TW – who have scored a league-leading 12 goals already (albeit in one extra game). Hamish Watson leads the way there. Five goals, scoring in each game he’s played. Throw in his seriously improved hold-up play and he’s been the form striker in the Premmy so far. As for Tasman, they need to start scoring some goals if they’re going to get much done this season… and they might have a better chance over the next two weeks away to Waitakere and home to Welly Nix reserves – two teams yet to keep a clean sheet.
Hey but shout out to Southern United who avoided that winless banner, with a second half strike from Ben Wade separating them from Hamilton. That’s right, they beat the dominant Wanderers. They also did it in typical Southern fashion by defending stoutly and taking a rare chance at the other end, winning the ball in midfield and scoring on the overload (check about 1:09:45 on the replay below). Including the game that was abandoned last week, Southern have played two and a half games and have scored once, conceded once. Don’t go looking for dramatic goal-mouth action when Paul O’Reilly’s team is in action… but they make you work bloody hard one way or the other.
They also got this win despite a two-hour delay in kick off that was forced by a bit of bad weather meaning they had to fly up to Auckland (and then catch the bus or whatever down to Hamilton) on match day instead of Saturday as planned. This after waiting four hours at the airport on Saturday before the flight was canned.
But you don’t have to worry about Southern’s approach because it never changes. It’s more about how others adjust and that’s the difference between the best teams and a team like Hamilton who are much improved but not at that level of, say, Canterbury United who got the win over Southern thanks to one moment of excellence. Matt Oliver made a number of sharp saves to deny them until Ben Wade came on and scored with basically his first touch. Hamilton have conceded exactly once each game, but this time they didn’t score. That’ll do ya.
For a long time Auckland City had trouble breaking down Hawke’s Bay United. They were kept scoreless by Southern in half a game a week ago too, the absence of David Browne seemingly making quite a difference to their attacking fluency. But then HBU drew with Canterbury last week too so they’re not to be underestimated. Birhanu Taye played his first game of the season for the visitors, who are going to have a whole lot of steel through the middle of the park when you add him to the likes of Cory Chettleburgh, Cam Lindsay and Dan Allen. Also youngster Karan Mandair got heaps of praise from his coach after this one, starting for the second week in a row. Taye had to be content with a spot at right back this week, so crowded is that depth chart.
Yeah… but City are stacked too so they just went to the bench, threw on Dylan Manickum, and watched him open the scoring in the second half. And within minutes it was 2-0 thanks to Micah Lea’alafa. Hawke’s Bay got sloppy and conceded right after conceding. The first goal came from a nice ball in behind from Cam Howieson, some pace and skill from Lea’alafa and then a tap in at the far post for Manickum. The second was a lovely switch from Howieson and then a volley from Lea’alafa on the edge of the box that beat Mackenzie Waite.
Then Maxime Olivieri got silly and dragged back Howieson in the midfield which earned his second yellow card and HBU had to play the last ten with ten men. He’s a sharp old player, Olivieri, very skilful with the ball and quite creative, but this was just unnecessary. Now he misses a game next week at home to Hamilton in which he could have been the difference. Sam Mason-Smith did score one late on with the help of a kind deflection, his first of the season, and HBU had a couple stoppage time threats to frighten the home crowd… yet it ended 2-1 to ACFC. Still, after their hiding against Eastern Suburbs in game one it does look like The Bay are going to be a threat after all, while ACFC just keep on doing what they do and winning games regardless.
Which brings us to our final game, the one which shaped up as the match of the round. Canterbury United vs Eastern Suburbs. The two beaten semi-finalists from last season… and somehow a mere ten minutes into this one it already looked like a no-contest.
Suburbs made two changes from the XI that won them their opening couple games. A fit-again Harry Edge came in for Campbell Strong in holding midfield and Alex Clayton started at right back instead of Jack Duncan. The Dragons named an unchanged XI. Two teams with high ambitions this season, Canterbury looking to respond from letting a couple points slip against HBU a week ago and Suburbs with the toughest test of their title credentials yet. How would their high energy, flowing footy stack up against a team as good as this? What about Canterbury’s profligacy in front of goal against the best defence in the comp?
Well, we weren’t even two minutes in when Eli Just rushed up on a defender (couldn’t tell if it was Tom Schwarz or Cory Mitchell), charged down the attempted clearance, and watched it loop up over the keeper Conor Tracey. Then before ten minutes were up an inadvertent own goal had Suburbs up by two before they’d even attempted a shot, riddle that one.
There was nothing lucky about their third goal though. Andre De Jong with a slightly acrobatic bouncing volley after Mohamed Awad had picked him out from an Eli Just through ball. This was Suburbs at their best and after that half of footy you had to agree that fortune favours the brave. Suburbs also have this unexpected grit to them and they’ve proved that they know how to ice a game once they get a decent lead. Such was the case here. They could have scored more but mostly they weren’t about to make any mistakes that’d let the Cantabs back in it. Seth Clark did score a gnarly finish with quarter of an hour to play, no more than the Dragons deserved, but 3-1 was the final score and if you still don’t think that Suburbs are title contenders then just wait for the reckoning next week when they play Auckland City. Cannot wait for that battle.
It could be said every week: Eli Just is going to go a long way. He’s already spent some time on trial with a couple European clubs and soon enough he’ll be back there permanently because you cannot keep a wild animal caged for long. He’s creating chances and setting up goals every damn week. The other guy to single out is Andre De Jong who, like Watto, has scored in every game he’s played so far. Let’s see who blinks first.
Slight concern for the Dragons, who only have four points from three games, although it’s not the top three they have to keep pace with to make the semis – it’s the rest of them. They’re probably the fourth best team so fourth place is where the target oughta be. They’ve got the WeeNix next week so gotta think there’s a win on the way there. The other games are Hawke’s Bay hosting Hamilton, Team Wellington inviting Southern United to the capital and Waitakere trying to score a few more goals when Tasman come to town. Keep calm but care.
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