Brooklyn
Northern United 2
Island Bay United 5
Capital
Premier
Wakefield
Park, Wellington
Saturday
16th May 2015
There
are many great derby's in the world, the Old Firm derby between
Celtic & Rangers in Glasgow, the eternal city derby in Rome
between Roma & Lazio, the Superclascio derby in Buenos Aires between Boca Juniors
& River Plate.These are built up over time due
to the close proximity of the clubs, the success of each club and
usually a bit of animosity.
So
when you talk about derby's in Wellington, you tend to think of
something like old National League foes Miramar Rangers v Wellington
United, you don't immediaetly think of Brooklyn Northern United (BNU)
v Island Bay United (IBU). There may be only 5km separating the
suburbs but the two clubs have only met at the top level 17 times in
the last 33 years!
In
Italy it is common for two clubs to share the same ground (eg AC
Milan & Inter). That is what BNU & IBU do, but not only that
they share the same club rooms! Not so much as Love thy neighbour, as
Live with thy neighbour!
As
a neutral I thought the name Living Room Derby was quite good,
however I'm neutral and when I saw the comments of BNU coach, Dene
Bannister who described Island Bay as “our fiercest rivals” and I
discovered there is a cup called the Presidents Cup on the line every
time these two clubs meet maybe I was wrong but still I like the
Living Room derby name (and to be honest I'll probably be the only
one to ever use it!)
From
an outsiders view the clubs are reasonably similar, while always been
around the Central League \ top Capital leagues, neither have been
massively successfully in terms of trophies won, but they both have
good junior sections and very good social sections.
As mentioned above these clubs have only met at the top level 19 times in the last 33 years.
Of these
meetings IBU have had the upper hand winning 9, while BNU have won 4
and 4 have been drawn. The last time the clubs met was in the Chatham
Cup in 2013 when BNU went 2-0 up early on but ended up losing 7-3,
which ended up being an omen for this game!
I picked
up a program from the bar and was initially impressed as it had a
glossy cover and as well as this game covered the women's central
league game against Stop Out the next day, but on opening it found it
was basically just a team sheet, although the page numbering gave
away the fact there must have been a printing error and 4 pages were
missing and the last 2 pages were just blank, oh well it was free.
Scanning
the team lists none of the players names really jumped out but there
was one name that did and that was IBU coach Mick Waitt. Mick Waitt
who had once played for Notts County, was the NZ National team coach
from 2002-04 where he won the Oceania Nations Cup and took NZ to the
2003 Confederations Cup in France, unfortunately in the cruel world of
football what he will be remembered for is losing 4-2 to Vanuatu in
the 2004 Oceania Nations Cup.
He is
now at IBU in Capital Premier which could be considered the 3rd
level of NZ football, while it was a surprise to see him there it
gives the impression that Island Bay are a club with some ambition.
As for
the game, the artificial turf makes the games quite fast. From a spectator
point of view this is great it leads to fast, skillful football and
is great to watch. After about 20 minutes BNU got a free kick and
this was the result.
Paul Clune score from a Blake Weston Free Kick
then
about 4 minutes later they got another 2-0 seemed deserved but just
when they were staring to look comfortable Island Bay got one back
around the 30 minute mark. Then 2 goals just before half time had
Island Bay at 3-2 up going into the break. It had been a good first
half with a standard off football higher than I had been expecting at
this level, I thought BNU were unlucky to be 3-2 down. The second
half was no where near as good, it was like the injury time goal that
IBU got knocked the confidence out of BNU and when IBU made it 4-2
that was game over. IBU made it 5-2 with a penalty in the last
minute, so BNU were 2-0 up and just like the 2013 Chatham Cup game went on to lose by score that makes it look like a hammering, I never saw the 2013 game but in this game 5-2 was a bit of a harsh scoreline for them - as one of their fans commented at the end you saw the good, the bad and the ugly of BNU today.
Comments
Post a Comment