Men's Div 1: Sprig & Fern Tahuna 1st XI v Fresh Choice Richmond 1st
Men's Div 3: Sprig & Fern Tahuna 2nd XI v Taste of Turkey Motueka 2nd XI
Men's Div 4: Sprig & Fern Tahuna 3rd XI v Wakefield FC 2nd XI
Men's Div 5: No game
Women's Div: Sprig & Fern Tahuna Breakers v Richmond Athletic AFC
Photos (as noted) by Ab's Snaps. For more match-day pics join the Facebook Group. To purchase photos or request your own photos at the next game contact Abbi Robinson.
1st XI 0-2 Richmond
Location: Jubilee Park
Match MVP: Will Mathews
A disastrous day for the blue army out in the metropolis of Richmondia, falling short against the old enemy of red in the critical search for points at the business end of the season. A few notable absences but plenty of optimism from the lads to begin the day.
The first half saw both sides trading blows in a back and forth encounter, but to be fair: Richmond dominated most of the ball play. Tahuna had some near efforts but were unable to create any real clear-cut opportunities in front of goal. Defensively, the lads did well to scramble and snuff out multiple runaway Richmond efforts, but one counter-attack late in the half was cleanly finished by the home side's captain. Another gut punch moments later, with a free kick to Richmond just outside the box - the winger chose to shoot, but instead sliced it right onto the noggin of the charging stawberry-blonde Richmond midfielder who connected with a tough cushion header past our TFC shot stopper. 2-0 down at oranges.
The second half saw changes to the boys in blue, which injected some youth & energy into the midfield. The lads took control of the game with a barrage of smooth passing plays, but were still unable to craft any clear chances, most efforts dropping into the hands of Richmond's keeper. Better ball play and a gallant effort, but still not enough to pull the much-needed points.
The day resulted as a complete write-off when in-form goalkeeper Joe Robertson's X-rays returned confirmation of the worst: a season-ending broken hand and broken hearts all round for the Tahuna faithful. Certainly not the way TFC legend-in-training Seth Watson wanted to celebrate his 100th match for the club, but the young warhorse has vowed to strap everything together to be there to lift the 1st div trophy with us next year. Get in lads, need these points in the next two outings! Up up!
Match report by Heyden.
2nd XI 4-1 Motueka
Location: Memorial Park
Goals: Hector "Gus" Cruz (3), Ethan Skinner
Match MVP: Hector "Gus" Cruz
With 8 members of the team away in greener pastures and the threat of a wet week closing fields, Tahuna was preparing to be off the pitch come Saturday.
But the rain held off, and along with a few ring-ins pulled from the teams below, we turned up to meet a Motueka team eager to get a vital win and help them avoid relegation.
Memorial Park was softer than porridge under foot without one flat meter of ground to get a clean pass on.
The boys in blue got stuck into the game from the start and had the golden back line running back to defend some beautiful through balls from Glenn and Duane in the midfield. Ethan on the left linking up with Gus up front showed that their keeper was not ready for a wave of blue surging forward at every opening. We held the ball in the opposition mud hole for the first 15 minutes well until our first goal came by way of Ethan with his left foot just inside the upright. He will be sorely missed when he returns to study in Wellington.
Shortly after, Motueka capitalised on a bad bit of timing and the resulting gap (the ball being potentially helped in by our 5th quietest centreback).
Tahuna was quick to get back in front with yet another beautiful through-ball, pushing toward the corner for Dan where the ball pulled up quickly and was nudged across to Gus for a tap-in.
Once we got ahead, we settled our game and started to play the easiest pass again to keep the opposition running after the ball. A couple of times we made an extra pass in the middle, square or short and gave up an easy ball on the tough pitch, giving Mot a chance to break away, but as always Will got down to make a number of great saves.
Before the half finished, Gus got on the end of another cross made easy from a great through ball to Dan taking us into the break 3-1 up.
Into the second half we made a few subs from our faithful supporting club members and we continued to dominate possession, but the Motueka half-time team talk had obviously had some impact and so did their second-half 11. We got ourselves a little too involved in pitch politics, letting our momentum and focus on the game drop, which led to more lost balls and more chances on goal for the opposition.
A few more substitutions and another ball into the corner squared back to Gus who put away his third, about as many games as he has turned up for this season.
A niggly game to the final whistle, but another well-fought battle away from home to keep them in their place and us in ours! Up Up.
Match report by Dan Smith.
3rd XI 3-0 Wakefield
Location: Wakefield Domain
Goals: Pedro Ivo (2), Adam Crichton
Match MVP: Alex Thompson
That was hard work, a very sticky pitch....tractor work.
We got it right, played to our strengths, scored goals and choked their attacks.
I think Pedro got the first 2 and Adam got the last late in the second half to finish them off.
We played a tight midfield diamond which effectively took out their midfield. They didn't really have much going down the wings so that was contained and as ever with us it's only a question of time before we score.
We changed to an easter egg formation just after we put number 3 past them and that was that really. Every time they got into our half we choked them. Everyone played well and reasonably cool on the ball. But I think the midfield diamond just edged it for players of the day............yeah all of us....no idea who got the beer but it better have been one of us. We protected and helped out the defence and we supported our offence, we kept a tight formation and stopped them getting a foothold in the game by pressing hard and fast. But most of all we stayed switched on for the 90 mins, coms were good and we brought the 3 points home.
Thanks to the support from Justin from the 4ths and the Breakers for the sideline cheers in the second half.
Special mention for Pedro taking one in the nose and coming back to get his revenge.
Men of the match 'the midfield diamond'
Great bit of training at the NMIT all weather astro turf last week, I think it's on again this week. See you there.
Match report by Cole.
Breakers 8-1 Richmond Huskies
Location: Tahuna Reserve
Goals: Meagan Hayes (3), Shannon Smith, Monique Day (2), Sophie Mathews, Own Goal
Match MVP: Keryn Filer and Hazel Adcock
Bob's involvement for the game: barely touching the ball in the first half, not jumping on a ball that ended up as an own goal, and touching the ball JUST ONCE in the entire 2nd half. Oh and asking for a cheeky sub with 15 to go (sorry Ma!). Everyone else's involvement: being the absolute ducks nuts, the bees-knees, and the cats pajamas for a full 90. Yeeeoooow!
This weekend's clash at the train station saw the Breakers take on Richmond's newest team - the Huskies. Earlier games had been rained off, so it was good to finally play against these girls - although some of us were feeling particularly nervous about the unknown! Nerves soon turned to excitement, with the Breakers own Monique scoring the opening goal. Two more goals followed, with both Shan and Sophie tucking one away. The Huskies had mostly been well defended by our backline up until now, with only a couple of balls needing cleaned up by Bob. Unfortunately, a tangle of blue legs and a misjudged boot led to an own goal for us and put Richmond on the scorecard. Somewhat comically, or perhaps a show of sympathy, the Huskies very quickly then tucked one into their own goal for us - or rather, Sophie managed to ricochet a ball off an unsuspecting Husky and into the net.
Halftime saw us at 4 - 1 (a score we'd definitely have been happy with) but fuel still in the tank meant that wasn't the end of the action. Our wee rocket Meagan had, up until now, remained goalless for the game, although had plenty to do with earlier goals either by assists or perfectly placed corner balls. Clearly unhappy with not being on the scorecard, she got two in a row early in the 2nd half. A second goal for Monique put them both on 2 a piece - and a new challenge for first hat trick now lay on the table. Ultimately, it was Meagan who rounded out her 3, bagging the hat trick (and all in one half - let's see you try that boys!) and boosted the score to an incredible 8 - 1 win for the Breakers!
An enjoyable match where we were able to try out some of our training drills, including playing out from the backline and lots of spontaneous shooting. Infact, there was so much action for the attacking players, we had to send in some reinforcements from a fairly fresh feeling backline - well done Amelia and Jenna for switching it up and seeing how the other half lives!
Overall, one of those games where if we had a dozen free beers we could hand them out to all on the team for awesome plays. But, player of the day was shared between two standout stars: Hazel who made sure to hold off a few very fast attacking Huskies on many occasions, keeping them well away from our goal. And Keryn, who got put into all sorts of positions, none that she was used to, listened to advice from the sideline and had an absolutely amazing game. Also big ups to Ma who made 101 breaks, at breakneck speed, but just wasn't quite able to finish - you definitely helped tired their keeper out for the rest of the attackers!
Tit of the team went to Kylie, who, proving that size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it (or in this case, don't do with it), stuck her arse out to intercept a ball and spectacularly missed.
Thank you Taylah (and Zach) for reffing/linesmanning, to the boys who came to support before their game, and to our regular fan base - hope we made you all proud!
A change of scenery next week with our home game at Ngawhatu vs Wahine Toa, before the ladies let loose and their hair down for the club party!
Match Report by Bob.
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