26 April 2025
- bountymouse88
- Apr 28
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 30
Division 1: Sprig + Fern Tahuna 1st XI Division 2: Sprig + Fern Tahuna 2nd XI
Division 3: Sprig + Fern Tahuna 3rd XI Division 4:
Women's Premiership: Sprig + Fern Tahuna Breakers Masters Football: Sprig + Fern Tahuna Masters
1st XI 2-0 Karenni
Location: Guppy Park
Goals: Jamie Floyd, Mackenzie Manaton
Match MVP: Ethan Skinner
"The drought ends, chaos reigns, legends are made"
Pre-Match Vibes:
The lads turned up buzzing – the weather gods had blessed us with sunshine and the football gods had blessed us with the TFC 2nd XI not having a game, meaning the firsts had a bench! The task? Beat FC Karenni for the first time in recent living memory.
First Half:
The clock had barely hit 6 minutes when Jamie Floyd decided he’d had enough of nill-all football.
After a monster throw-in by new recruit Stan Moss that had NASA concerned about orbital debris, a flick on header by Mackenzie had Jamie swinging his left peg like a man trying to kick-start a lawnmower and smashed one home. 1–0 Tahuna. Scenes. Somewhere, Rory Delap shed a tear of pride for that throw in.
Tahuna kept the foot on the gas: rattling the crossbar, peppering the goal, and generally looking like the better team, thanks to the midfield block limiting Karenni to long balls and allowing TFC to hit them on the counter. Anything over the top was calmly handled by James Owen and Franco Briones.
Despite a few near-misses, we went into halftime 1–0 up and feeling like maybe, just maybe, this would be the day.
Second Half:
Tahuna came out like a team possessed, defending compactly and breaking down the wings with Johnny Lewis and IT causing more havoc than a couple of latecomers at a wedding.
Tahuna kept pressing, and Mackenzie Manaton decided it was time to enter his prime Peter Crouch era — a bullet header from a Johnny corner, straight into the net. 2–0. Cue wild celebrations, awkward hugs, and a lot of shouting about "wanting it more."
Not wanting to make life easy, FC Karenni helped us out with a classic double yellow-to-red meltdown. But because fair’s fair, Tahuna quickly decided to get a man binned too. Symmetry is beautiful.
Drama peaked when Karenni won a penalty late on, and the local darts club – who had been well-lubricated and loud all game – thought they were about to see a comeback.
But Joe "Emiliano Martinez" Robertson had other plans:
After Matteo's elite-level sledging efforts, Joe dived the right way and pulled off a save that deserves to be carved into club folklore (or at least mentioned heavily at post-match beers).
2-0 it remained, with Tahuna able to run down the clock and take home the 3 points. Our unbeaten run extended to five games going back to last season, with a tough away trip to reigning champions Blenheim Rangers this weekend.
Man of the Match:
Ethan Skinner — covering more ground than a rumour at a high school, bossing the wing, then dominating midfield like a man who read the assignment twice. Absolute scenes.
Honourable mentions to Luc Gellatly & Franco, another dominate effort in their respective areas.
A huge thanks from the whole 1st XV to the seconds for helping us field a team: James Owen, James Munday, Isaac Taylor & Harry Edwards – you all put in a great shift and we really appreciated it!
Match report by Mackenzie Manaton.
2nd XI Postponed
Location:
Goals:
Match MVP:
Match report by .
3rd XI 2-0 Richmond FC Bogans.
Location: Tahunanui S2
Goals: Diego Catto, Danny Hampton
Match MVP: Eric Louis
What promised to be a fiery encounter lived up to the promise as Tahuna 3rds took on Richmond Bogans at Tahuna S2 this past Saturday. With Tom Dunn and Bernie Muollo dropping down to help the 4ths, the 3rds were graciously given Will Murphy and Danny Hampton from the 2nds.
Bogans kicked off and it became immediately apparent that Tahuna had the speed and technicality to overcome the Bogans physical presence. Dong and Quan linking up really well with the former being set through on goal by Quan's inch perfect through balls. On the opposite side Binh and Sayha were linking well with Diego threading the ball through and looking dangerous.
At the back Eric and Thorsten were on the LB and RB controlling the wings and not allowing Bogans to make any moves while Sobi and Matty Knight were controlling the CB roles. A number of chances went by for Tahuna before Bogans got a break and what can only be described as a harrowing David James moment, Will mispunched the ball and allowed Bogans to get a shot on an open goal! Luckily Sobi appeared like an Iranian nightmare and cleared the ball out. A lucky escape there.
Tahuna then pressed on with Dong and Quan linking again before Quan flicked the ball into Diego and for the second time in as many games Diego turned his man 180 and released a shot on the edge of the box with the ball nestling in the keepers bottom left. 1 nil Tahuna and the boys were looking dominant again.
A quick change around and Danny Hampton was on for Dong. Almost immediately Bogans wanted a piece of Danny and the following stand over after Danny was taken down by a suspect rugby tackle was rather entertaining.
The rest of the first half was a lot of Tahuna controlling the ball in the middle of the park with Sobi and Kieron combining well and Sayha missing multiple chances in front of goal with one shot being a beautiful lay up from Danny who headed it back away from the keeper and Sayha heading it and the ball hitting the top of the bar and going out for a goal kick.
Halftime whistle blew and Tahuna came off with a 1-0 lead.
A couple of changes at half time saw Ralph come on for Matty and Kieron dropping to CB alongside Sobi. Tahuna kicked off and it was much of the same for the second half with Tahuna snuffing out any Bogans attack and dominating the possession.
Diego flicked a wonderful ball through to Danny who with a tight angle smashed the ball right through the keeper to make it 2-0 on the day. Some more pushing and shoving came along later in the game and culminated with Diego being punched in the stomach by an opposing Bogans player right in front of the ref! The ref had no choice but to brandish a straight red for the silly altercation.
Tahuna didn't manage to use the extra man and get a few more goals with the ref blowing for full time.
4th XI 3-3 Suburbs Bula boys
Location: Tahunaui S1
Goals:
Match MVP:
Match report by .
TFC Breakers 9-0 FC Nelson
Location: Tahunanui S2
Goals: Jesikah, Ruby x3, Sophie x3, Emily x2
Match MVP: Michelle Melbourne
In a challenging outing at Tāhuna S2, Nelson FC showed determination and heart against the in-form Tāhuna Breakers side.
It was great to see Rebecca back out on the filed after a long recovery from injury last year. With only 11 players the Breakers were going to have to dig deep to manage their fitness and composure for the 90 minutes.
The scoring started early, with Jesikah finding the net, finishing off a corner delivered by EJ. The momentum continued when Ruby slotted home a goal from a neat pass by Jesikah.
Ruby followed up her first goal when she capitalised on a rebound from the goalkeeper to add another goal to her tally and extend the Breakers’ lead.
Ruby wasn’t done yet as she completed her hat-trick with a brilliant solo run, tearing through the Nelson FC defense. Not to be out done, Sophie added her name to the scoresheet, finishing off a clever assist from Jesikah.
Strong breakaway runs from Nelson FC tested the Breakers defense of Shiloh, Marijke, Janelle, and Rebecca, who supported Arin in goals to ensure the Breakers did not concede a point.
The Breakers kept the pressure on, with EJ scoring two solo goals in quick succession, demonstrating great composure and skill. Sophie then produced another moment of magic finding the back of the net with a stunning solo effort.
The running mid field support of Jenna and Michelle was not unnoticed with many of their plays setting up the goal scoring. The relentless attacking and defending from Michelle earned her the player of the day.
The final goal came, when Sophie completed her hat-trick, showing a strong individual performance with a clever chip around the advancing Nelson FC keeper.
Despite the scoreline, Nelson FC displayed plenty of spirit, refusing to give up and continuing to compete across the pitch. Their efforts and positive attitude throughout the match were a credit to the team, showing real promise for the games ahead.
Match report by Cris Phelan.
TFC Masters 3-3 Richmond Masters
Location: Jubilee Park
Goals: Kevin, Garry, Colin
Match MVP: Cam West
We owned most of the first half. We used the wings well and created lots of chances, OK we didn't put them all...maybe most of them away. But the service was way better so keep that going and Cole, Kev n Gaz will try to be a bit more clinical. We played some good patches of possession and moved the ball around well. After a good spell of pressure Kev tackled their defender and broke through one on one with the keeper and tucked it past him to put us 1-0 up. We created a lot more chances in the half but it finished 1-0'
We started the second half a bit shabby and they scored early to make it 1-1. About 10 mins later Gaz got onto one in the six yard box to put us 2-1 up. As everyone got fatigued frustration started to show for a while until Kev put a through ball to Cole and he smacked it and it dipped under the cross bar...over the keepers hands. Full time 3-1.
Definitely a more settled performance, solid defence, good movement through the midfield, plenty of service to the strikers...mint.
Match Report by Colin Chapman.
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