Wairarapa
United 2 Miramar Rangers 4
Chatham
Cup Round 4
Memorial
Park, Masterton
Saturday
16th July 2016
Attendance
about 200
Cost $5
The
last 16 of the Chatham Cup and this time there were no games in
Wellington, so it called for another road trip, this time to
Masterton & Palmerston North.
Until
recent times it would be fair to say that Masterton and the Wairarapa
have been something of a footballing backwater.
They
do have some unique Chatham Cup history though.
The Chatham Cup was
first proposed in April 1922 by the crew of the HMS Chatham who commissioned and paid for the trophy (at a cost of 175 pounds) as their way of saying thanks to the hospitality shown to them by the people of New Zealand. The NZFA received the trophy in December of 1922. It wasn't until April 1923
that the NZFA started to look at how the competition would work. They
decided that they would run the National Round and leave it up to
local FA's to determine how a representative from their region would
be selected. Some FA's such as Canterbury couldn't see how they would
fit games in so didn't enter in the first year. The Auckland FA
decided that the 2nd round of their league competition
would double up as Chatham Cup games with the winner qualifying
(Northcote were the champions).
So
the first ever Chatham Cup games were mostly likely combined league &
cup games in Auckland. The first dedicated Chatham Cup (ie Chatham
cup games only) came from a more unusual location.
On
the 14 June 1923, the Wairarapa FA advised the NZFA that they had
four entries, Masterton, YMCA, Waingawa & Post &
Telegraph (P&T) and sometime between then and 14 July these teams played
each other to determine the finalists for the Wairarapa. The
Wairarapa final was played on July 21st when Waingawa beat
P&T 3-1. So the Wairarapa, along with Manawatu (who had some
qualifying games around the same time) probably hold the honour of
playing the first dedicated Chatham Cup games. The winners of these
FA's competitions, Waingawa (Wairarapa) & Dawber's Motor Depot
(Manawatu) then played each other in Masterton with Dawber's winning
6-0.
The
next time a team from the Wairarapa figured significantly in Chatham
Cup competition was in 1956 when Masterton Athletic made it to the ¼
finals only to be beaten 7-3 by eventual winners, Stop Out.
Then
in 1996 Masterton United and Carterton merged to form Wairarapa
United and this club has gone on to establish themselves as a force to
be reckoned with in the Central League and in 2011 they won the
Chatham Cup, beating Napier City Rovers 2-1 in the final.
Miramar Rangers have won the Chatham Cup 4 times
(1966, 1992, 2004 & 2010).
This was the 5th time these
teams have met in the Chatham Cup competition each with 2 wins
apiece. This season both teams have been involved in cup games that
could be described as classics. Wairarapa United in Round 2 when they
overcame Waterside-Karori 5-4 after extra time in a game that
included 4 sendings off. While Miramar had beaten Napier City Rovers
4-3 after extra time in the last round.
Wairarapa
United had rested players against Olympic last weekend to concentrate
on the cup, Miramar had lost their last 2 games in the league and
were starting to slip of the pace (although they are only 4 points
behind the league leaders - it is that tight of a league this year)
The
game was delayed by 30 minutes due to a car crash near Upper Hutt
which had meant that the Miramar team took 3 hours to get over the
hill to Masterton (a trip that should take half that time).
Once
the game started it took 10 minutes for the first event to happen.
Wairarapa's Nicholas Raab and Miramar's Finn Moore came together in
the penalty area, from where I was I didn't see much more than 2
players running into each other, however others told me later that
there was a push from Raab on Moore which was why the ref gave a
penalty. What was more surprising was the referee's decision to show
Raab the red card as well.
Tom
Jackson scored from the spot.
 |
| Josh Hill guesses the right way but can't save Tom Jackson's penalty |
From
the kick off you wouldn't have known that Wairarapa were down to 10
men unless you counted and 9 minutes later player coach, Paul Ifill,
hit a low shot through a crowd of players in the penalty area and
made it 1-1. Wairarapa United continued to play well and it was
almost as if losing a player was beneficial to them and just after
the half hour mark Sam Mason-Smith made it 2-1.
The
score should have stayed that way until half time but with about 3
minutes until half time the Wairarapa United defence had a momentary
lapse of concentration and Miramar equalised, I wish I could tell you
how it happened but I too had a momentary lapse of concentration (I
was deleting some photos) and all I know was Tom Jackson got the
goal.
Sometimes
there are moments that turn a match and the home crowd will probably
claim that it was the sending off of Raab, but in this game it was
half time when Paul Ifill had to come off after picking up a knock.
Wairarapa United were still playing well but seemed to lose a bit of creativity and seemed to be sitting a bit further back and relying on
attacking via counter attacks. The problem with this approach is that
giving a team like Miramar the majority of possession in your half
will inevitability lead to them scoring and that's what happened in
the 70th minute when Tom Jackson got his hat-trick after a
goalmouth scramble.
Wairarapa
United started to push forward after this as they were eager to get a
goal back but Miramar's defence was solid. Wairarapa were getting
more and more desperate, the 200 strong crowd were (and had been
since the sending off incident) on the referee's back and a couple of
rash challenges were starting to fly in and then with 7 minutes to go
Sam Mason-Smith made a particularly bad challenge with studs up and
the ref had no option but to send him off. This was effectively the
end of the game and Miramar finally managed to make the numerical advantage count when Tom Jackson scored his and Miramar's 4th
with 2 minutes left.
So
Miramar Rangers go into the quarter final draw, while the season is
effectively over for Wairarapa United. This season Wairarapa United
have been a good team to watch but have just lacked that extra edge
that the teams in the top half of the table have. One thing is for
sure the Wairarapa is no longer the footballing backwater that it
once was.
Comments
Post a Comment