A Battle to Learn From

Troy Lochead

Two contrasting performances were the order of the weekend for the Ngaruawahia’s two northern league sides who traveled to Three Kings United.
           The A’s kicked off the day with a pleasing 2-2 result with the team who had won the 2006 championship by a whopping 15 point margin.
           Against a side that demonstrated a footballing pedigree rarely seen in the reserve competition the Narra’s A’s amply balanced the ledger with a good old dose of grit and determination, lead superbly by seasoned Narra veterans Troy Lochead, Mark Phillips and returning 100-kilometer walker Jared Williams.
         Goals provided by Julian Laws and Captain Lochead in fact gave the green machine a 2-1 lead and a sniff of victory with only minutes to play.
         A long range equaliser by the hosts was perhaps a fair conclusion to the 90 minutes and overall a tremendous point to take away.
         Andrew Carruthers once again battled admirably up front and caused no end of worry to opposing defenders.
         All 14 players contributed to the effort, even the Jenny Craig poster boy ‘Paul Hellyer‘ had an opportunity to damage limbs of players within a 15 meter radius of the ball in his cameo 15 minute performance.

Nils Reardon

It is important that the character starting to build in the A’s is maintained and it is pleasing to see some patches of fluidity amongst the ranks.

In the first team match, things could hardly have begun worse with Captain Nils Reardon carried off within the first minute with suspected ligament damage on a rolled ankle.
The re-arranged backline coped adequately for about the next 20 minutes, before the cracks started to appear.
Three Kings needed little invitation to feed the ball to their new Argentinean striker, who although having been in the country four weeks had only gained international clearance for the weekend’s game. Whether or not he evolves to be a great signing for three kings will only be discovered over the course of the season.
However, if the four goals he scored on Saturday are any gauge, assisted somewhat by timid and indecisive defending he will likely prove a valuable acquisition.
Heading into the halftime break at 1-0 might not have been too demoralizing, however to concede on the stroke of halftime to another mesmerizing effort from the Argentinean to be 2-0 down posed serious questions.

On reflection the halftime juncture provided little inspiration to the players and any offensive counter attacks were suitably squashed by the Three Kings defensive unit.
A further four goal haul in the second half could quite easily have been double had it not been for the efforts of Johnathan Keenan.

Obviously a lot of soul searching was required before the Anzac fixture against Papatoetoe, where any denomination of points will be seen as a step in the right direction.
In defense of the players, the step up in division has provided a steep learning curve and one which I am sure they are all capable of surmounting.
It is important to maintain a belief in both the individual ability and the collective ability of the team.
Often in times of difficulty it is seen as the true character of a person showing through.
It is still a long season to go and Papatoetoe offers an opportunity to gain a 90 minute performance from both teams. Let the battle commence.