Papamoa FC 0 - 1 Old Blues
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Team Line up
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Keeper - Wayne Davidson L/Mid - Tristan Wood Striker - Reuben Wood
R/Back - Nathan Ruddell R/Mid - Greg Anton Striker - Mike Crosby
L/Back - Ian Yates C/Mid - Simon Helm (c)
C/back - Brendon Putt C/Mid - Curtis Osbourne
Sweeper - Shane Hodge

Subs - Josh Hitchcock , Luke Thompson , Brad Hodgson , Daniel Anton & Craig Martin

Papamoa FC started the 2009 season with a very strong looking team missing only a couple of players missing , creative maestro Strewart Wooddin & Centre Forward ( and goal scoring machine hopefully ) Joey McKenzie - no pressure Joey ! The game kicked off and the home team went straight on attack , the ball being worked out wide left to Tristan Wood who would skip past his opposite number for the first of many times & drive towards Old Blues penalty area , unfortunately his final ball into the box let him down . From the resulting bye-kick Papamoa pressed Old Blues back into their own half and again created a good chance for themselves , Captain Helm winning the Ariel dual in the middle of the park and putting Reuben Wood clear , the lightening quick Wood left 2 defenders in his wake and forced the Old Blues keeper into a very good save low the his right hand post . This would be the pattern of the first half with all the football coming from the home team and Old Blues absorbing alot of pressure and attempting to catch Papamoa on the counter attack , in seasons gone by this may have had Papamoa in trouble but with a rock solid back four of Ian Yates , Shane Hodge , Brendon Putt & Nathan Ruddell Papamoa never looked in trouble , keeper Davidson only touching the ball twice in the first half ( and not with his hands i may add ! ). With Simon Helm controlling the centre of the park this allowed his partner in crime Curtis Osbourne to race forward and support the front two , on two occasions Curtis went close to opening the scoring , firstly breaking into the box , collecting a brilliant lay-off from Big Michael Crosby before testing the Away keeper with a crisp drive ... and moments later leaping high to head just over from a Greg Anton cross from the right . The first half came to a close with Shane Hodge going into the refs book for a last ditch tackle on the Old Blues right winger ( brilliant cover tackle Shane ! ). With the resulting free-kick being cleared by Ian Yates the ref blew for half-time . Papamoa started the second half the way they played for the first 45 , pressing Old Blues back into they're own half , working hard for each other and trying to play football , it wasn't long until they created other great chance this time Reuben Wood sprinting onto a brilliant through ball from his brother Tristan before drawing the keeper and shooting low towards the right hand corner , again the Old Blues keeper produced a great save to deny the home team ...not to be deterred Papamoa kept trying to pass the ball and create openings .. On 65 mins Papamoa made their first change with Josh Hitchcock coming off the bench to replace the hard working Greg Anton , his first involvement was to rob the Old Blues left wing before running 60 yards and sliding in a great ball to the far post for Michael Crosby to take a good first touch and fire in a low drive towards goal , only for the Old Blues keeper to get down smartly and smother the shot ( That keeper was really starting to annoy me ! ). With time running out Papamoa took off the Tiring Michael Crosby ( who had held the ball up well all day ) and brought on the hard running Brad Hogson for the final 15 mins .. Pushing forward looking for the goal their performance deserved Papamoa again split the away defence with Curtis Osbourne again finding space in behind the back four before firing his volley over from 10 yards ( too much time to think about it Curtis ! ). With 5 minutes remaining Old Blues broke up-field before a scramble in the Papamoa box resulted in the Old Blues Centre forward bulletin a shot from 12 yards off Brendon Putts face into the top right hand corner of the net , keeper Davidson rooted to the spot !!!! There was still just enough time for Tristan Wood to skim the Old Blues bar with a shot come cross , but it was not to be Papamoa's day the ref bringing the game to an end ....
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A very good first up performance lads , everyone to a man played well with nobody having a poor game , as the Old Blues Captain said after the game football is all about taking your chances , they had 2 and took one , he lost count of the chances we created ... But if we play aswell as that every week and create half the chances we did on Saturday we will go well this season !

Player of the day goes to Nathan Ruddell at right back , brilliant tackling , great positional play ( can't think of you getting caught out once Nathan ) , passing was simple and to feet for the whole 90 minutes

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NOTES;

Thank you must go to Staci who organised the Kitchen / food for after match Thanks to everybody who turned up to watch & support us , always great to hear the support from sidelines , also to the players with the effort that was made paying subs , with everybody paying the required amount before kick-ff on Saturday ( great effort lads ! )

Congratulations to the Papamoa Raingers on their first game for the club coming from 2 goals down at half-time to beat Ngongataha 3-2 , Martin Weismann scoring 2 brilliant goals ... and the prolific Sid Waters getting the other ... well done lads !!!

Next home games are on the 18th April when both senoir mens teams will being playing at 2.00 against AFC Fury 2 & Otumoetai 4 .