THE AVE - ISSUE 10
FRONT COVER: Ben Shaw BACK COVER: Warm up against MAP Res NEXT HOME GAME Fencibles Utd 06.07.19 @ 5pm
Welcome to Michaels Ave for another round of Lotto NRFL action Well todays game against Dan Johnston’s Waitemata FC marks the start of the second round officially (with 1st round game against Tauranga postponed) it’s time to reflect on what has been an interesting 1st round, and no game had more drama than the reverse fixture between todays sides. Hopefully for both sides there is not similar late drama in this match. TIME FOR AN OPINION Change in topic for a moment - for those who have not heard Forrest Hill Milford and North Shore are proposing a merger for the 2020 season, mostly in relation to the ongoing pressure from Federations and NZF to comply with things like Y licence etc. Part of NZF’s plan was to see if mergers were possible to push resources into bigger and more robust clubs, which is fine in theory - but if the reason for change is being driven reasons relating to elite pathways then a word of caution needs to be sounded. It’s imperative for the sport as a whole that community access to Football is not hindered by these mergers. In this example if say all community Football ended up at Becroft Park then how does the community of Devonport get involved in football?? Something to ponder for all clubs considering this.
WELCOME TO THE AVE
TODAYS MATCH OFFICIALS Referee: Ravikash PRASAD AR1: Sinan CHALABI AR2: Nikolay SHEVLAYAKOV (Also Reserves Referee)
FROM THE DUGOUT Good afternoon everyone, A warm welcome to Dan Johnston and the Waitemata team to Michaels Ave today for an important fixture for both sides. With only one point separating us on the competition ladder there is plenty at stake today. If today’s game is anything like the second round clash at McCleod Road then the spectators are in for plenty of action and drama. It was a back and forth affair with the lead changing three times. It ended in a 4-3 victory to Ellerslie, with the winning goal coming in the last seconds of the game, giving us our first three points of the season. We are expecting a closely fought encounter today. Both teams have very similar records although Waitemata have shown they have firepower up front by the number of goals they have scored to date. With no match last weekend due to Mt Albert Ponsonby’s continued involvement in the Chatham Cup it gave our players a welcome mid-season mini break which hopefully has allowed everyone to be rested for the game today. I hope everyone who comes along enjoys the match.
Fred de Jong
Round Fixture
Result
Round Fixture
Result
1
vs. Mt Albert Ponsonby
0-2
11
@ Hibiscus Coast
3-1
2
@ Waitemata FC
4-3
12
@ Mt Albert Ponsonby
p/p
3
vs. Forrest Hill Milford
1-2
13
vs. Waitemata FC
22.06
4
@ Fencibles Utd
4-3
14
@ Forrest Hill Milford
29.06
5
vs. Takapuna AFC
1-1
15
vs. Fencibles Utd
06.07
6
@ Waiheke Utd
0-2
16
@ Takapuna AFC
13.07
7
vs. Bucklands Beach
0-4
17
vs. Waiheke Utd
20.07
8
vs. Tauranga City Utd
p/p
18
@ Bucklands Beach
27.07
CC R1
@ Ngaruawahia Utd
6-0
19
@ Tauranga City Utd
03.08
9
@ Three Kings Utd
1-2
20
vs. Three Kings Utd
10.08
10
vs. Bay Olympic
0-3
21
@ Bay Olympic
24.08
CC R2
@ Waitakere City
1-2
22
vs. Hibiscus Coast
31.08
2019 NRFL DIV ONE
HIBISCUS VS ELLERSLIE AFC Adam Barkley loves coming to Stanmore Bay, the last two times he has played against Hibiscus at their place he has scored and as he settles into his new role as the leading striker in the team I’m sure he won’t be short of advice from his old man who was a reputable striker in his day – Noel even claimed a quasi-assist for these two goals via twitter straight after the match while Adam and his teammates tucked into a curry (a Stanmore Bay away day tradition) and a bottle of wine at Big Tikka Whangaparaoa. After performing to a high standard last week against Waitakere City in the cup we really needed the lads to come out firing in what was shaping to be a crucial match in the relegation dogfight – typically Ellerslie tend to drop these games and leave our safety in the league wide open only to slam it shut at the last moment, so it was nice to see us get a win in what is essentially the last game of the first round and open up a 10 point gap in the process – but it could have all been different in what was a nervy game of football from Ellerslie. Hibiscus came out surprisingly calm considering the circumstances, personified by their coach Maurico Rojas (ex-Auckland United) who never raised his voice and seemed to be quite relaxed on the sideline (except for one little moment when there was a debate about match balls with Kyryl) and they seemed quite focused on their jobs and kept the ball well in the opening period. We clearly had the better and more technical side but the Coast front three (particularly their centre forward and right winger) were a handful and got us wondering how they had only scored 4 goals this season. It was quite noticeable however that when they did go forward they didn’t commit numbers so any loose balls generally fell our way. As we worked into the game and got our press setup we started to really cause problems for Coast as their backline had a tendency to play short which gave us opportunities to bite and that’s exactly what happened for the first goal – a ball was played from the Coast holder to their right back who took a heavy touch and Ollie swooped in and picked the ball up and rounded the right back in the same movement, he then drove towards goal where two defenders were trying to close his shooting angle – but before he could contemplate his next move the poor right back who had given the ball away dove in on Ollie from behind in the box and cleaned him out – clear penalty and to be honest should have been a yellow card as well. After a bit of a delay while Aaron Collin (from Physio Rehab Group) treated Ollie on the field Dylan placed the ball on the spot and sent the keeper the wrong way to record his 6th goal of the season. At this point having a lead was a bit of a bonus as Sahil had been called into action to make two brave saves at the feet of the Coast
strikers – saves that had to be made and he did just that. Just prior to halftime Ollie succumbed to his knock and was replaced by Art Twigg who picked up a new position to his list of positions – left wing!
Halftime was an opportunity for everyone to get out of the wind which at times in the first half had really peaked and threatened the structural integrity of the dugout, not to mention a few buildings as well – but the lads came back out for the second half in slightly calmer weather and desperate to score next to give ourselves some breathing room. To be fair to Adam the difficulty level of his first goal was vastly understated – it takes good technique to hit a volley when the ball is that high and on your weaker foot to add to the difficulty level kudos to Adam for not panicking and skiing the ball. The build up to that goal saw Adam start the move down the left flank before cutting the ball back to Aalok – who paused for a second contemplating a shot and then made his mind up and took a swing at the ball – but the defender had closed him down and the ball ricocheted up into air – Rowan challenged the keeper for the high ball and was able to head the ball back across goal to Adam who was waiting to apply the finish! At 2-0 we felt a comfortable enough to make a few changes to the team and to protect our lead Ben Shaw came off (was on a yellow) and Tariro came on into midfield and we had to replace Art who had landed awkwardly and hurt his knee in a challenge with the Coast keeper, hopefully it isn’t too serious and he is back soon – that saw Ben Hughes take the field in his place and Adam Barkley move to the wing. Not long after that Rowan played an excellent ball to Dylan down the right hand side and he fired in a perfect square ball for Ben Hughes to fire home but the GK managed to palm the shot away even though there was almost zero reaction time and Adam Barkley as a good poacher does was there to tap the ball home at the back post to give us a 3-0 lead. At this point teams with a killer instinct do one of two things - they sit back and give the opposition nothing or they push on and kill the game off with more goals – we did neither of those things as we passed up a few more scoring opportunities and also Hibiscus grabbed a goal to give themselves a chance in the game. At the end of day we did enough to win the match that was in front of us and put a decent gap between us and the teams chasing us and with two weeks* to prepare for our next league game against Waitemata things are falling our way for a change. *League game against Mt Albert Ponsonby is postponed as they are still in the Chatham cup – but Reserves are still playing
HIBISCUS VS ELLERSLIE AFC
ELLERSLIE AFC FIRST TEAM Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
1
Ben Smith
23
Dylan Horgan
4
Jordan Bresler
27
Tariro Mashonganyika
7
Karar Sohrabi
34
Denny Twigg
8
Adam Scott
38
Patrick Fahey
10
Adam Barkley ©
39
Ben Shaw
12
Marius Weihrauch
13
Josh Torrens
COACH: Fred de Jong
16
Rowan Corbett
ASST: Terry Torrens
18
Sahil Dhunnookchand
GK COACH: Kris Pinnock
20
Aalok Paudel
PHYSIO: Aaron Collin
22
Josh Lai
MANAGER: Isaac Jacobs
Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
2
Hamish MACKAY (c)
18
Jake TELFORD
3
Sam SEDON
19
Simon DAY
4
Jason BEESTON
20
Jamie CLARK
5
Josh ANDRELL
23
Matt GUY
6
Tyson BRANDT
7
Roy VAN LEEUWEN
COACH: Dan Johnston
8
John HIGHT
STAFF: Andrew Campbell
9
Shane TANNER
STAFF: Derek Waldergrave
10
Kuyama TOMA
STAFF: Liam Campbell
11
Arnold Kochasira
12
Josh NISHITANI-HART
14
Junho HONG
WAITEMATA FC FIRST TEAM
MT ALBERT PONSONBY VS ELLERSLIE AFC Saturday early afternoon saw Ellerslie Reserves play at Anderson Park in Lotto NRFL Div 1 Reserves action as the First Team game on Friday night was postponed as hosts MAP were still in the Chatham Cup, drawn against Ellerslie's conquerors Waitakere City. Having no first team game and a few players who had been sitting in limbo between First Team and Reserves in recent weeks needing some serious minutes made selections tough as we had to rest some high performing over 23 players from the side. So with the selection drama to one side we headed out onto a very nice surface at Anderson Park with a strong lineup and determined not to drop our bundle like we did against Waiheke Utd earlier in the season. There wasn't much time to contemplate a banana skin in this contest as Patrick opened the scoring in the 4th minute as he pounced on a loose ball in the six yard box and tapped it home - a result of some great team pressing. From there the game progressed along similar lines as Ellerslie pressed the MAP backline well and grabbed rewards from time to time.
What was really pleasing is none of the goals could be considered bangers, which is good because almost all of them involved a sharp passing sequence with well executed final passes and a good finish - clinical basic football. Two of Josh Lai's 3 goals (in his first game back from the US) were the epitome of the above with middle of the goal runs found by a low cross and put home without any fuss - really hard to defend once the move has started. MAP were not without chances and they had two massive chances of note, both from headers and both down to Kyryl's left, but the young Ukrainian Kiwi was up to the task and got down well to save both of these efforts - he also got an assist earlier in the game as his long ball from a backpass made it's way to Josh Lai who was 1v1 with the keeper and finished with a deft lob.
A real team performance from the Reserves as they grabbed their 6th clean sheet of the season and grabbed a season high of 8 goals and kept pressure on Three Kings who sit three points ahead of us (and 9 more goals scored) albeit we have a game in hand.
MT ALBERT PONSONBY VS ELLERSLIE AFC
ELLERSLIE AFC RESERVES Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
1
Kyryl Bolharyn
38
Patrick Fahey
7
Karar Sohrabi
40
Jacob Carroll
9
Hazem Al Fayad
41
Minjoo Kim
11
Josh Marshall
43
Michael Glenny ©
19
Nick Shaw
44
Kojo Norku
21
Das Lai-Sai
25
Dirrenesh Thirukumar
26
Shohei Monju
28
Harry Stanbridge
COACH: Seb Bouvier
29
Callum McKenzie
ASST: Grant Marshall
30
John Murphy
Manager: Isaac Jacobs
Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
Lonbsang SHERPA
Jeff IRABOR
Bruce GIBB
Daniel SCHISCHKA
Andre COLPI
Thomas VAN ERP
Ben ANDRELL
Mike XAVIER
Cam HOLM
Juan DE IRIARTE
Henny TESFAY Jonno BATTERSBY
Jordan O’NEIL Josh CAMPBELL Luke ROBERTS Ray AUNA Zane MANASE
WAITEMATA FC RESERVES
For people reading this program digitally you can click on the appropriate App store link above otherwise search Ellerslie AFC in your app store
TABLES & CLUB APP POS
CLUB
PL
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
PTS
1
Three Kings Reserves NRFL1R
12
10
1
1
49
9
40
31
2
Ellerslie AFC Reserves NRFL1R
11
9
1
1
38
7
31
28
3
Forrest Hill Reserves NRFL1R
11
7
1
3
23
18
5
22
4
Bucklands Beach Res NRFL1R
12
6
2
4
31
20
11
20
5
Bay Olympic Reserves NRFL1R
11
6
0
5
28
18
10
18
6
Fencibles Reserves NRFL1R
11
5
2
4
30
21
9
17
7
Takapuna Reserves NRFL1R
11
5
1
5
27
34
-7
16
8
Tauranga City AFC NRFL1R
11
5
0
6
24
33
-9
15
9
Waitemata NRFL1R
12
5
0
7
27
45
-18
15
10
Hibiscus Coast Res NRFL1R
11
3
2
6
13
30
-17
11
11
Waiheke Reserves NRFL1R
12
2
0
10
9
30
-21
6
12
Mt Albert Pon Res NRFL1R
11
0
0
11
10
44
-34
0
POS
CLUB
PL
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
PTS
1
Forrest Hill Milford NRFL1
10
8
2
0
22
8
14
26
2
Mt Albert Ponsonby NRFL1
10
8
0
2
31
10
21
24
3
Bucklands Beach AFC NRFL1
12
7
2
3
26
20
6
23
4
Takapuna NRFL1
10
6
3
1
27
12
15
21
5
Bay Olympic NRFL1
10
6
2
2
27
11
16
20
6
Three Kings Utd NRFL1
11
5
3
3
18
11
7
18
7
Waiheke Utd AFC NRFL1
12
4
4
4
15
20
-5
16
8
Tauranga City AFC NRFL1
11
4
3
4
17
17
0
15
9
Waitemata NRFL1
12
3
2
7
24
26
-2
11
10
Ellerslie AFC NRFL1
10
3
1
6
14
23
-9
10
11
Fencibles Utd AFC NRFL1
11
0
0
11
15
33
-18
0
12
Hibiscus Coast NRFL1
11
0
0
11
6
51
-45
0
TABLES & TWEETS
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