Better late than never
Burwood B 0 V Methven F.C 1
The return grudge match of the season with the mountaineers meeting their bogie team. The match commenced with the sun low and a bobbly pitch making conditions detrimental to the usual, quick, incisive, fluent, football which had made Methven the proven front runners in their ability to tear teams apart with clinical, classy, play.
Three weeks without a game also clearly had a negative affect. All this mean't that the first half failed to produce anything to excite the fans.
Surely the second half could only get better. Unfortunately the Methven gear box was still stuck in first and in need of urgent repair. With the sun now on their backs there was some slight improvement in some of the passing and movement but there was still a distinct lack of creativity. In fact, deep into the second half the most entertaining thing to occur was when Rory Posa plunked the ball out of the sky with a neat first touch only to lose his footing straight after, face planting in the wet mud in slapstick fashion; right in front of the laughing home fans.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, methven rolled the dice one last time and brought on the talisman Luccini. However the immediate impact was to be delayed and the danger came at the other end of the pitch when veteran keeper, Wasley dived at full stretch to parry the ball round the post, to stop a world class effort from the Burwood striker. Methven made the most of this lifeline and in the dying embers of the match. Luccini went down the left channel and worked the defender enough to get his cross into the box. As if in slow motion and with the only sound the thumping heartbeat of Alex Blake as he managed to reach the back post and connect with the brilliant pass. The stadium erupted into a caldron of noise with even the home fans providing a standing ovation. The away side should definitely feel like they got away with one today but like all great champions they ground out a result when they didn't play well.
Methven go again against Papanui Redwood AFC on Saturday 7th, 2:30pm kick off at the Methven domain.
Other scores:
Methven Reserves 2 V University AFC Presidents 4
Methven 15th Grade 2 V Christs College 3