THE AVE - ISSUE 7
FRONT COVER: Jordan Bresler BACK COVER: Warm up against Narra NEXT HOME GAME Waitemata FC 22.06.19 @ 5pm
Welcome to Michaels Ave for another round of Lotto NRFL action This is the last home game that will be played in the 1st round of the Lotto NRFL Div 1 (thanks to our home game against Tauranga being moved after a clash with the Chatham Cup) and we host Paul Marshall and his Bay Olympic side today. It’s another big game for Ellerslie as we have now gone three league games with no points and with only the safety blanket of Hibiscus Coast and Fencibles between us and relegation spots it’s getting a bit close for comfort. The Reserves have an entirely different challenge on their hands as they look to capitalise on their exciting 1-0 victory over Three Kings last week by backing it up against a top 4 Bay Olympic team.
Follow us on Twitter (@EllerslieAFC) for live score updates of both games! Please join us after the match up in the clubrooms for a cold drink of your choosing.
WELCOME TO THE AVE
TODAYS MATCH OFFICIALS Referee: Ashley Wilson AR1: Mark Fleming AR2: Wendy McNeely (Reserves Referee as well)
FROM THE DUGOUT Good afternoon everyone, We welcome Paul Marshall and his Bay Olympic side to Michaels Ave for this round 10 match. We are almost half way through the competition and the table is starting to stretch out with Mt Albert Ponsonby and Forrest Hill Milford leading the way. After a promising start to the season we have dropped our levels over the last three matches and with three losses have subsequently dropped down the ladder. We were disappointed with our result last week against Three Kings Utd, having lead the game until the 70th minute and then losing 2-1. It was another case of not being sharp enough at key moments which has cost us goals throughout the season.
Terry and I were pleased with the Chatham Cup result against Ngaruawahia a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes these games can be hard fought affairs but we managed to get a couple of early goals which allowed us to control the rest of the game and eventually run out 6-0 winners. We are expecting a tough game today against Bay Olympic. At the start of the season Bay were picked by most to be pushing for promotion and Paul has a strong squad at his disposal. We will need to concentrate for the 90 minutes if we are to get anything from the game. There has been plenty of goals and drama at our home games this season and I expect today will be the same. I hope you all enjoy the match Fred de Jong
Round Fixture
Result
Round Fixture
Result
1
vs. Mt Albert Ponsonby
0-2
11
@ Hibiscus Coast
08.06
2
@ Waitemata FC
4-3
12
@ Mt Albert Ponsonby
14.06
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
25.05
21
@ Bay Olympic
24.08
CC R2
@ Waitakere City
02.06
22
vs. Hibiscus Coast
31.08
2019 NRFL DIV ONE
THREE KINGS VS ELLERSLIE AFC It's no secret that Three Kings had under-preformed this season, a team that had been relegated from NRFL Premier League last season despite throwing cash at players like Allan Pearce, Horace James, Darren White and Enrico Tavano while fielding some long time solid Three Kings players should have been one of the favourites alongside Bay Olympic to win promotion this season - however a bit of a change in philosophy and a new coach saw them mostly shun the Manchester City approach as they tried to build a team without the price tag. Some unlucky results early in the season combined with a bit of a run of injuries saw them alter that slightly as Horace James and then Cam Howieson joined to bolster their quality. Having a player the ilk of Cam in your team in Division One makes a massive difference to your team and we unfortunately saw that first hand on Saturday! We had not been in great form ourselves and while we had picked up 7 points from our first 5 games, we had not picked up any since with consecutive losses against Waiheke and Bucklands Beach without scoring a goal (with some mitigating circumstances around the Bucklands game). So we headed into the last three games of the 1st round where we faced Three Kings, Bay Olympic and then Hibiscus Coast as a period we had to get some points from. A return to the team from Adam Barkley who had been on a 5 week European Holiday (big fine that) and Olly Chiaroni from injury meant we fielded a pretty strong team with only Tariro and Denny Twigg still on the injury list. We also gave a debut in goal to Sahil Dhunnookchand who had recently joined us from US College football where as a freshman he nailed a starting spot at a NCAA Div 2 college called West Virginia Wesleyan. The game itself was pretty much as expected with Fred and Terry's pre-match analysis of Three Kings right on the money with the only unknown based around where Cam would play - we expected Three Kings to have a lot of the ball and they did and while at times we had to scramble to keep them from opening the score in the first half we didn't get cut open badly. The most troubling aspect in the first half was the movement of the Three Kings captain Ryan Cain who was playing as the lone central forward and he caused us some headaches, particularly when he was able to link with Ben Thomas and Cam Howieson in midfield. Ellerslie were still in the game though and Aalok particularly did a good job of nicking the ball when he could and he tried to play forward to get Art, Rowan and Olly in the game - however those raids often were quickly shut out and we would be back in defending mode once again.
The opening goal of the game did come against the general run of play, but it was something we had talked about before the game - Three Kings were prone to the odd mistake and the pressure was all on them, expectation and being at home was weighing down on them the longer the game went scoreless - and that was our chance to grab an error and punish it. Rowan who has hit some form with his general play after being a bit rusty early in the season was the one to benefit from the error as the Three Kings keeper threw a ball out to his fullback but left it a bit short and Rowan put his foot down to the floor and intercepted the ball and dinked the ball past the stranded keeper to give us a lead and to really turn the pressure up on Scott and the Three Kings side. However the second half the home side continued to attack and while they became more desperate, there was a period of time where they looked like they were not going to create the chance they needed to score a goal. Then came the moment perfectly setup for Cam Howieson to make his mark on the contest - a free kick on the edge of the box - on the right hand side of the arc and with Cam's left foot he curled the free kick past the wall and into the bottom left corner of the goal to level the score. Not content to leave the game tied Cam grabbed another goal just 6 minutes later - a cross from substitute Thomas Picken hit the crossbar and dropped in the box to Cam who chested it down and slammed a left foot bullet past Sahil who had no chance from such range to give Kings the lead. Ellerslie pushed hard in the remaining 16 mins to get something from the game but Kings defended their 3 points staunchly and while we thought we good snatch a point it was not to be. Another challenging game this coming weekend as we play Bay Olympic, perhaps the turf will give us a slight advantage - we need some points!
THREE KINGS VS ELLERSLIE AFC
ELLERSLIE AFC FIRST TEAM Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
GK
Kyryl Bolharyn
15
Seb Poelman
GK
Divikesh Deo
16
Rowan Corbett
GK
Sahil Dhunnookchand
17
Ben Hughes
2
Alexei Davies-Campbell
20
Aalok Paudel
4
Jordan Bresler
23
Dylan Horgan
6
Olly Chiaroni
38
Patrick Fahey
8
Adam Scott
COACH: Fred de Jong
10
Adam Barkley
ASST: Terry Torrens
12
Marius Weihrach
GK COACH: Kris Pinnock
13
Josh Torrens ©
PHYSIO: Aaron Collin
14
Art Twigg
MANAGER: Isaac Jacobs
Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
GK
Nick Draper
17
Jonathan Quinn
GK
Elliot Munford
18
Jayden Rollinson
2
Rhys Ruka
19
Jacob Matthews
4
Antonio Bonkovich
21
Ben Billings
5
Mitchell Nash
Harry Streamer
6
Patrick Bowen
Nathan Maisey
7
Lebon Bulamba
Sam Burfoot
8
Jimmy Banks
COACH: Paul Marshall
9
Jared Colligan
ASST: Liam Mulrooney
11
Bayley Foster
GK COACH: David White
12
Harrison Nash
MANAGER: Andy Phipps
16
Mario Bilen
PHYSIO: Michelle Pravin
BAY OLYMPIC FIRST TEAM
THREE KINGS VS ELLERSLIE AFC A top of the table clash for the Reserves was the motivation they needed to get them to focus after a week off while the First Team played in the Chatham Cup (hopefully sometime in the future the NRFL Reserves Cup returns), while a win for Ellerslie wouldn't hand them top spot (unless it was by a large margin which was unlikely) it would draw them level on points and make the top spot a very tight race. Since our last game against Bucklands Beach which ended up being a comfortable W on the scoreboard but was a bit emotionally draining after we lost Minjoo to a serious injury we have got a few more players back from the injury wards and we fielded a pretty strong team against Three Kings with Adam Scott and Mike Glenny forming a strong partnership in the middle of our defence and Monju and Caleb providing midfield power infront of them.
It's lucky we put out a defensively strong team as Three Kings were pretty slick upfront and they caused us all sorts of problems, particularly in the areas infront of and behind our fullbacks and inbetween our midfield and centrebacks - however they lacked a clinical edge and a lot of their attacks faltered through a combination of good defensive scrambling and poor finishing/option taking and in Kyryl they found a keeper who was determined not to concede.
This was particularly highlighted in a period when Three Kings had 4 or 5 corners in a row which were pretty much all dealt with by Kyryl and coming out the other side of that period with his clean sheet intact gave him and the team a big boost of confidence.
It was infact a corner at the other end that proved the difference in the game as Mike Glenny grabbed his second goal of the season from a set piece as he headed in a ball at the back post after what I think was a flick on at the near post. I didn't manage to see the second half as the Reserves pitch was literally a mile or two away from where the First Team were playing so I had to head back to civilization and missed what would have been a tight second half, with dogged defending from Ellerslie with the odd counter attack using Karar's pace and Das and Shak's trickery. So the odd goal decided the game - an odd goal from an odd scorer - a great result!
THREE KINGS VS ELLERSLIE AFC
ELLERSLIE AFC RESERVES Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
1
Kyryl Bolharyn
31
Will Sargent
3
Shukrullah Rezaie
35
Finn Rathbone
5
Denish Chand
36
Hossain Kaio
7
Karar Sohrabi
37
Caleb Pahina
8
Adam Scott
40
Jacob Carroll
11
Josh Marshall
41
Minjoo Kim
21
Dastgeer Lai-Sai
43
Michael Glenny ©
25
Dirrenesh Thirukumar
44
Kojo Norku
26
Shohei Monju
COACH: Seb Bouvier
28
Harry Stanbridge
ASST: Grant Marshall
29
Callum McKenzie
Manager: Isaac Jacobs
Shirt # Player Name
Shirt # Player Name
GK
Zane Green
13
Braden King
GK
Quibang Chen
14
Sam Carr
2
Stefan Miller
15
Mark Carroll
3
Campbell McIntyre
16
Liam Bracey
4
Kaleb Bowles
17
Ben McGregor
5
Sam Gilich
18
Nathan Bracey
6
Harry Streamer
19
Antonio Bonkovich
7
Nathan Maisey
20
Olusegun Rotimi
8
Anthony Lewis
9
Ronin Moosman
COACH: Martyn Miller
11
Matthew Hunter
ASST: Kris McGregor
12
Ethan Stevenson
PHYSIO: Michelle Pravin
BAY OLYMPIC RESERVES
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TABLES & CLUB APP POS
CLUB
PL
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
PTS
1
Three Kings Reserves NRFL1R
8
6
1
1
30
8
22
19
2
Ellerslie AFC Reserves NRFL1R
8
6
1
1
23
5
18
19
3
Forrest Hill Reserves NRFL1R
8
5
1
2
15
15
0
16
4
Bay Olympic Reserves NRFL1R
7
5
0
2
23
11
12
15
5
Tauranga City AFC NRFL1R
8
5
0
3
22
16
6
15
6
Bucklands Beach Res NRFL1R
8
4
2
2
21
13
8
14
7
Takapuna Reserves NRFL1R
8
4
1
3
17
19
-2
13
8
Waitemata NRFL1R
8
3
0
5
18
28
-10
9
9
Fencibles Reserves NRFL1R
7
2
2
3
17
16
1
8
10
Hibiscus Coast Res NRFL1R
8
1
2
5
6
23
-17
5
11
Waiheke Reserves NRFL1R
8
1
0
7
6
21
-15
3
12
Mt Albert Ponsonby NRFL1R
8
0
0
8
5
28
-23
0
POS
CLUB
PL
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
PTS
1
Mt Albert Ponsonby NRFL1
8
7
0
1
25
5
20
21
2
Forrest Hill Milford NRFL1
8
6
2
0
17
7
10
20
3
Bucklands Beach AFC NRFL1
8
5
2
1
20
12
8
17
4
Takapuna NRFL1
8
4
3
1
17
7
10
15
5
Bay Olympic NRFL1
8
4
2
2
21
10
11
14
6
Three Kings Utd NRFL1
8
3
2
3
10
9
1
11
7
Tauranga City AFC NRFL1
8
3
2
3
11
13
-2
11
8
Waiheke Utd AFC NRFL1
8
2
4
2
7
8
-1
10
9
Waitemata NRFL1
8
2
2
4
13
13
0
8
10
Ellerslie AFC NRFL1
8
2
1
5
11
19
-8
7
11
Fencibles Utd AFC NRFL1
8
0
0
8
13
25
-12
0
12
Hibiscus Coast NRFL1
8
0
0
8
4
41
-37
0
TABLES & TWEETS
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