1st Team: A Game of Two Halves!

Last Saturday saw BMAFC 1st Team traveling to Colin Maiden Park to take on Uni Mt Wellington, with the knowledge that they had beaten Beachlands' nemesis from last year, Western Springs, 11-3 in the opening round of this season.

With the tragic accident of Tony Chapman on the Tuesday before hand and the support of two of his daughters, Brook and Kelsie, on the sidelines the lads had plenty of emotion running through their veins, and a minute's silence was observed immaculately before kick off.

The first half brought some outstanding football by BMAFC with Sam Scurrah grabbing the first goal, five minutes in, with a deft touch from his right boot after captain Ant Schomaker delivered a pinpoint free kick. This seemed to take Uni Mt Wellington by total surprise as BMAFC dominated possession with slick passing and some great movement. The call before the match was for Beachlands to put the home side under pressure, allow them no room to play, and with these instructions followed, Beachlands forced plenty of mistakes from the defense of Uni Mt Wellington.

As they continued to give the ball away under pressure, 15 minutes into the game Matt Henney grabbed his first goal of the season as he cut in and slammed the ball in the back of the net.

At 2-0 the lads still keep there foot down but the third goal was hard to find as Uni Mt Wellington had slowly started to get themselves into the game. With five mins remaining of the firt half, a Uni Mt Wellington player had a free header on half way which was then knocked into the path of one of their many quick players, who then raced away from BMAFC defense to slot the ball just inside the right hand post. Sam Scurrah valiantly slide into clear but only collected the post for his troubles.

The second half unfortunately started very differently for Beachlands, with Uni Mt Wellington gaining some confidence from the end of the first half. They looked at getting the ball wide and did so early on as they broke down BMAFC right hand side and delivered a pinpoint cross between the aging Brian Preston and keeper Adam Mathews, where two Uni Mt Wellington players were queuing up, unmarked, to slot home the equaliser.

Luckily a five minute respite saw BMAFC take the lead again with Matt Henney claiming his second with a low drive which squirmed through the keepers wet hands.

Not long after the goal some changes were made and the pace Uni Mt Wellington was playing was ferocious. Beachlands' legs started to tire and the lads started to lose their shape. Cool heads were replaced by frustrated attitudes and instructions from the bench were being ignored. Uni Mt Wellington took the lead after some poor marking allowed the home side too much space. Unfortunately this also signaled Beachlands' raised white flag. BMAFC seemed to conceed defeat as they rued missed opportunities and conversely Uni Mt Wellington ran in three more goals.

Final score: 7-3. Not a scoreline the boys took easily with plenty said after the match. The positives for the boys to take from the match is that when the attitude is right they can tear any team apart. At this level it is about taking your chances when presented and playing football for 90 minutes. A learning curve for all!

By Brian Preston