"Captain Hat Trick" Seals Win for 1st Team

Ant Schomaker grabbed the headlines on a sunny day at Te Puru, well apart from the brief shower just after halftime.

With the majority of games called off due to the heavy rain during the week I was able to call a few of the reserves to fill the squad. Ben Mallinson was out injured so Ross Murphy got the starting birth at left back and took his chance with both hands. It was a strong line up with the legendary Mark Bignell as cover for the backs, also Shane Gardner, Tristan Blignault and Paul (I cant buy a goal) Startin keeping the bench warm.

Beachlands were anticipating a tough match even though Otahuhu were bottom of the table, the 1st round match was a turning point for the lads as it represented the 1st win of the season, it also saw Matt Henney take a couple of blows to the chin as the GK saw red after Matt had slid in a perfectly legitimate tackle, AFF must have thought Otahuhu were coming for revenge as the sent 3 officials for the fixture, the first call was to move the game from TP1 to TP2, sounds daft, and it was, TP 2 was a bog! TP1 was deemed unsafe due to the condition of the goal mouth, funny how referees over the previous 3 weeks thought the pitch was ok! Never mind we quickly reset the nets flags and had a great warm up on TP1.

The game started ahead of schedule, they even kicked off with out me! Beachlands absorbed a bit of pressure early on, but the defensive line held firm in the mud, the lads started to build some momentum and started to put some good passages of play together, Sam Scurrah was given instructions to keep the midfield shape which has disappeared from our game over the last few weeks, this also gave the wide defenders an extra man to pass too, once the lads got the ball wide and kept it on the deck and out of the bog in the middle they started to look dangerous, Captain Ants swapped sides with Sean (Happy Feet) Langford which paid dividends almost immediately as the ball was worked down the left hand side slipped through to Matt who in turn laid the ball off for Ants to strike sweetly home.

Ben Taylor was at his menacing best, determined to give his new boots a great debut he launched into a 50/50 with the Otahuhu Keeper leaving him in a heap, Taylor protested he went for the ball, the referee had no hesitation in pulling out a yellow card, some of the Otahuhu players were starting to get a bit niggly and some of their tackles were coming in late, which saw one of their own booked for a tackle from behind on Captain Ants, 10 minutes later the same player decided he knew better than the Ref and was duly sent off for decent.

The second half was very much the same as the 1st, Otahuhu could pass the ball around but could not find a way through, Beachlands on the other hand were tearing them apart especially down the flanks, the 2nd goal wasn't far away as Ants drilled one in from a tight angle on the left after some great work down the same side, to Otahuhu's credit they didn't give up, they kept trying to play football, but found it to hard to break the defensive line down, half way through the second half Ants made the points safe as he claimed his hat trick, changes were made with the points safe, Paul Startin got into the action quickly, with his first contribution to the game he climbed all over a Otahuhu defender, the Ref was very quick to show him a yellow card for his efforts. Sam Scurrah received a yellow card late in the match for trying to wind his opponent verbally which the Ref took offence too.

Three goals and three points keep the lads in fourth place. Captain Ants gabbed the glory with a great hat trick (should have had 6) Shane (Dolly the Sheep) Dalton was man of the match and Sean (Happy Feet) Langford was brilliant! The lads over all battled well in the mud, had we been on Te Puru #1 the score line would have been greater. Paul (I cant buy a goal) Startin was unlucky not to get on the score sheet as he worked extremely hard. Don't worry Pauly we still love ya! Yes we do! Ohhhhh Pauly we love you!

By Brian Preston