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 0-1 FC Nelson Karenni
Location: Victory Square
Goals:
Match MVP: Sarah Taylor, Heyden Nunn
Our Tahuna 1st 11 were in high spirits after last week's valiant effort against a title challenging Suburbs team. Our spirits were lifted even higher this week as Isaac Taylor announced on Friday that his amazing wife Sarah had given birth to a beautiful set of twins! AND the all mighty now mother of 3 said he could play football the following day!! What a hero xoxoxox
Congratulations from all of us Sarah and Isaac!
Knee high grass, a concrete cricket block in the center circle and a good dusting of dog poo in the goalmouth…Football at Victory Square…
A late start for the boys as IT ran down from the Hospital, Toro fixed his bike chain halfway to the game and everyone else fought the locals for a parking spot.
Tahuna started the game well and played some nice footy, we passed the ball around in the brush and made good attacking runs down both flanks. An early chance for Tahuna as a well worked link up move down the left wing put Riku in but smashed just wide of the post. Continued attack from Tahuna saw a number of long throw-ins and corners sail into the box only for the boys legs to be taken out and shirts pulled to the ground. FC Karenni do well to disguise their dirty defending tactics.
Karenni had a few scrambled chances in the first 45 and Joe who played brilliantly in goal was able to snap them all up and Kieran who gets on the keepers stat sheet for a goalline save. Teams headed into halftime locked in at 0-0.
The Second half started like the first with more strong defending and strong attacks from the boys in blue. 10 minutes into the 2nd half and finally a moment where Tahuna thought they would beat the deadlock! A bouncing through ball had Seth and the Karenni goal keeper race to get the ball just outside of the box! Seth won the foot race but the keeper caught the ball with his hands outside of the box. The ref called the handball and gave the keeper a yellow card awarded a free kick. The ref said at the time “yes it is a red card but i am not going to give it”. Its been a tough year for the boys in blue and this hurt.
Hurt turned into pure pain as Tahuna lost Riku to an Injury and Karenni managed to score a scrappy deflection off the post to win the game.
Good sideline banter from FC was ruined when a beer bottle was thrown at a Tahuna player well after the whistle.
Tahuna played well all across the park and were very unlucky to not get a point out of the game.
Huge game from all the boys, MOTM, Heyden Nun who runs on half a leg but incredibly well for 90 minutes. WOTM, Sarah Taylor
Match report Seth Watson
2nd XI 2-2 Wakefield FC
Location: Wakefield Domain
Goals:
Match MVP:
The weekend's fixture saw a threadbare Tahuna team venturing into the forest to take on the tricky trees of Wakefield. After a spirited pregame pep talk at the Little Sprig, Tahuna hit the pitch with confidence, perhaps buoyed by the promise of celebratory drinks later.
Tahuna’s early pressure paid off when they forced an own goal from a corner within the first five minutes. Wakefield, determined to respond, started creating chances and forced Will into several saves. An unfortunate injury to our veteran Scotsman meant our equally seasoned Englishman, Gary, had to step in far earlier than planned, slotting into midfield. Widemen Dan and Til managed to find some space behind the defence on occasion, but despite their best efforts, Tahuna struggled to test the keeper. The impressive Wakefield side dominated most of the first half and were unfortunate to have a goal disallowed, with their striker in an offside position when he followed in a rebound. 1-0 to Tahuna at the oranges.
The second half saw Tahuna move the ball around a bit sharper. Ollie, Ross, Sam and Harry putting in some good challenges in defence, with Munday and Lionel starting to get a foothold in midfield. However, Tahuna were punished for a momentary lapse in concentration. A clearance header went nowhere, and slow reactions allowed a Wakefield midfielder to unleash a thunderbastard of a half-volley just inside the post from about 12 yards. Not to be outdone, Tahuna marched back up the field and won a penalty. Til, in his final game in Tahuna colours, danced through the defenders before being brought down. He dusted himself off and coolly converted the penalty, putting Tahuna back in the lead at 2-1.
The game then swung back and forth, with both teams having their moments. Lionel performed brilliantly in the middle, becoming a target for some robust challenges from the physical Wakefield side. Sam nearly scored from just inside the halfway line with a free kick that floated tantalizingly past the post. With about 20 minutes left on the clock, Tahuna, pushing for a third goal at a corner, lost possession, and the ball was booted to halfway. Ollie, caught in two minds, was dispossessed, allowing the striker to break through on goal. Will forced him wide, but the striker managed to square the ball to his partner for an easy tap-in.
With only minutes left, it seemed Wakefield might snatch victory with a well-hit free kick, but Will managed to get down low and tip it around the post. The match ended in a draw, a fair result, though Wakefield might feel they could have edged it.
Sadly, Tahuna couldn’t send Lionel and Til off with a win. The young lads are returning to Europe after a year in Nelson. They’ll be sorely missed both at training and on match day.
Man of the match honours went to Will in goal, with votes also to Til for his energetic and confident display on the left.
Match report by Will.
3rd XI 0-0 Richmond FC Thistle
Location: Jubilee Park
Goals:
Match MVP: Josh, Han
Tahuna came into this game having gotten the scalp of the league leaders last week and were ready to go up against a Richmond team that pound for pound boasted one of the quickest attacks in the league.
However, before kick off the lads were notified that Tom Dunn would be unable to play due to sickness so up stepped again Josh Hindrup.
Knowing the attacking power Richmond possessed Tahuna went for a standard 4-4-2 formation with a backline boasting Bernie, Stu, Angus and Ralph. The midfield boasted new signing Mateo Hernandez who had squeezed through a late season transfer from Suburbs Rovers.
The Tahuna lads shaped up pretty well from the off with neat passing around the backline and midfield, Sobi pulling the strings in the midfield and unleashing Mateo down the right wing pretty early on. The linking up between the Argentinian, Sobi and Diego looked really goods from the off with the Brazilian getting a shot off only to be denied by the Richmond keeper going full stretch.
Thistle looked good on the break but The combined might of the Tahuna back 4 really doing the job of keeping the young Richmond players away from the goal. However some good passing from Richmond allowed them to find a crack at goal with Josh Hindrup showcasing some decent saves to keep the scores 0-0.
Tahuna did have numerous chances with Dong releasing Sayha only to put it agonisingly wide. Tahuna gaining more possession and looking the more likely of the 2 to score as the half went on. Han making some clinical tackles and quickly moving the ball to Sobi who released Sayha again for a crack at goal but instead of shooting passed to Mateo who released a bomb of a shot to send it wide again!
The ref blew the whistle for half time with the scores still 0-0.
Tahuna came off buoyed by their attempts at goal but also the top notch defending from Han and the back 4.
Second half underway and Tahuna set themselves up for a big second half knowing that youth was on the side of Richmond Thistle. Some good passing from Richmond saw them make a break towards goal but Stu got in the way to nick the ball off the striker and send it into the midfield where Han found Sobi who flicked it out to Mateo, The argentine found Diego who passed to Sayha who again came close to breaking the deadlock.
Sub from Tahuna saw Mateo and Dong give way to Blessings and Binh with the former showcasing some good defensive ability on the wing to nullify the attacking ability of Richmond down the right flank. Binh was causing all sorts of problems for Richmond on the right as they could not seem to contain him. More than once Binh tried letting off his trade mark bazooka shots but the Richmond CB always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Richmond again tried attacking down the left and at one point the winger managed to get past Bernie who turned and managed to roll back 20 years to make a fantastic tackle and dispossess the winger!!!
Again Richmond came forward trying to find the goal but the Tahuna boys stood strong with Josh making multiple smart saves to keep the scores level. Bernie then had to come off with a nosebleed to which Mateo jumped straight into the RB position. Sobi pushing out to RM and Binh and Han running the centre of midfield.
The ref then blew for fulltime as the score ended 0-0. Tahuna came away feeling very proud as even with a depleted team they showed an elite mentality to get the job done. A draw was a fair result for both teams as the game was played in very good spirits.
Next up for Tahuna 3rds they await a visit from FC Nelson Loco Steamers. A result here could help their push for a 3rd place finish......
Match report by Stu Mountain.
4th XI 0-0 Suburbs FC Sky Blue
Location: Saxton Field
Goals:
Match MVP:
Match report by Zach.
TFC Breakers 3-0 FC Nelson Diamonds
Location: Tahunanui S2
Goals: Hannah, Hazel, Ruby
Match MVP: Shiloh
“We came, we played”.
After a two-week hiatus from the game, the ladies where itching to get on the field again to face off against FC Diamonds. With15 players on our side and FC short a player, a big thank you to Jenna for volunteering to don the FC Black and White uniform put in an excellent performance and enjoyed the opportunity to face off against a couple of the Tahuna players with strong tackles and defensive plays.
With Rebecca and Abbie cheering on from the side line we were not disappointed with the game, the first half saw Tahuna dominate the FC defence with continued attacks on their goal. Unfortunately, we were unable to put one past their Goalkeeper, who was playing an amazing game.
At half time the score was 0-0, we started the second half the same as the first with back-and-forth attacks on goal with great offensive midfield runs by Ruth, Bailey, and Aimee. The solid defence of Marijke, EJ, Mon, and Michelle stopped the advancing FC players, with an outstanding effort by Shiloh to earn her the MVP of the day with her ability to continually hassle FC’s fast and young players.
Our first goal came in the 59th minute with a long-range angle kick from Hannah, with the second not far behind after Ruby following up on an attack on goal to be tackled by the goalie and the ball passed to Hazel to slot the ball into the back of the net.
Hannah showed her team spirit and by electing not to take a shot at goal to add 2 points to her tally but pass the ball to Ruby to own the goal and put the ball away for our third point.
Although a 3-0 win to Tahuna, FC have improved significantly, and we had to work to ensure a win and move to third place on the table.
A shout out to Taylar for consistent referring and allowing the game to flow.
Thanks for another great game to watch. Match report by Cris.
TFC Masters 6-0 Golden Bay Masters
Location: Tahunanui S1
Goals: Daz x 2, Garry, Matt, Patty, Dave
Match MVP: Peter Batty
Yay back to winning ways and good football. So our glorious leader Kev went and fucked his knee up helping out another team. Tut tut not a responsible thing for a manager to do, especially with the current injury list. Anyway we're all wishing you the best Kev and a speedy recovery. As it turned out we had 4 subs and we showed up for the game.
We settled into it pretty much from the kick off scoring within the first 10 mins (Daz, assist Glen). We had control of the game and worked patiently to create chances and this time stuck them away. The lads from the Bay played in good spirits and there was no nastiness. The game was reffed well by John and Zack, they kept the game moving which promoted a free flowing entertaining clash (for the Tahuna fans....obviously not so good for the away fan). Nobody made any howlers and we played to our strengths, good possession, good passing, good finishing, not holding the ball too long and being cool enough to go backwards to go forwards. It all looked pretty crisp out there.
I can't remember the goal order but here's what I do remember, Daz got 2, both assists Glen. Gaz got 1 assist Zane, Matt got 1 assist ?? Patty got 1 assist Matt, Dave got 1 assist ??.
So next game....and this is the Title right there, is against Suburbs Masters, they have 6 points on us (I think they beat Wakey). So it's a must win, we have the players and the structure to peg back 3 points so lets do it.
Match Report by Cole.
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