Wainuiomata
2 Naenae 0
Capital
1/2 playoff
Petone
Memorial
September
3rd 2016
Attendance
: 200 approx
The
season is coming to an end so there is less and less football to
watch (there was actually none last weekend, hence no blog). Saturday had the annual Phoenix preseason game at Kapiti Coast
United against a Central League XI. With quite a strong Central
League side named this looked like it could be a good game to watch. But that would be too easy and when I spied that two smaller Hutt
Valley clubs were playing each other in a playoff to see who would be
in next year's Capital Division 1, that's where I decided to go (oh
and Petone was easier to get to for me than Kapiti!).
Naenae
had finished 2nd bottom in Capital 1, while Wainuiomata
had finished 3rd in Capital 2. As Waterside-Karori Cougars
had finished 2nd and couldn't be promoted due to their
already being a Waterside-Karori team in Capital 1, Wainuiomata were
given the chance at promotion via today's playoff.
The two
clubs, besides being based in suburbs of Lower Hutt, are not dissimilar in size and history. Naenae were formed in 1948 and were a
founding member of the Central League (Div 2) in 1968 and while they
spent most of their years in Central League around Division 3 & 3 South they did
get up to the top division a couple of times.
Wainuiomata were founded in
1959 were also a founding member of the Central League (Div 1) and
spent most of their time in Division 2 or 3 but did get to the top
division a couple of times.
This was
the 45th meeting of the clubs 1st teams, of the
40 known results Naenae held the edge with 19 wins to Wainuiomata's
14, while 7 have been draws. Naenae's record win against all clubs
and Wainuiomata's record loss is a 1970 Chatham Cup game which Naenae
won 11-0.
 |
| Wainuiomata fans take over Petone's club rooms Photo The JourneyFan |
I'm used
to getting strange looks when I tell people what games I'm going to
see, however that's usually from non football people, but when I
mentioned this one even football were looking at me oddly! I had seen
Naenae play already this season when they lost to Marist and
there were about 20 people watching, given the Phoenix were playing
elsewhere I was expecting the crowd to not me a lot more than that.
So I was well surprised when I turned up and it seemed that half of
Wainuiomata had come over the hill for the game (well OK not that
many, but still a couple of hundred).
There
are no programs published at this level and I didn't arrive early
enough to take a pic of the team sheet from the ref. I was told
however Wainuiomata were making full use of their youth policy, as
their regular keeper had been injured, and in goal was Ralph Chenery
who has made over 400 appearances for Wainuiomata!
 |
| Wainui's Ralph Chenery - over 400 appearances PHOTO : The JourneyFan |
At this
level, unless you have been watching a team all season, you never
really know what you are going to get, the skill level obviously
won't be as high as Central League but then that's the beauty of the
game you can always get the unexpected.
As it
was the teams in the first half appeared evenly matched, although
Wainuiomata did have more attempts on goal, while Naenae struggled
with this which helps explain their total of 19 scored for the
season. As the game went on there were a few “tasty” challenges
from both sides and the referee dished out a few yellow cards, he did
well keeping a control on the game, especially with a loud vocal
crowd which was dominated by Wainui fans.
 |
| Photo : The JourneyFan |
Wainuiomata's
coach is Graham Watson who has been around the Wellington football
scene for years, I remember him as coach of Lower Hutt City when they
played in the National League in the late 90's. They didn't have a
great season, finishing 2nd bottom and sometimes the
football was dire, but you always knew you'd get some entertainment
just from watching Graham Watson on the sideline. He seems to have
mellowed a bit and it looked as if Naenae's coach had given his players more of a rev up
at half time as they came out looking the better team for about 20
minutes.
But then
the turning point, Wainuiomata played a through ball and the striker
found himself onside and with the Naenae keeper almost in front of
him, the fact the Naenae keeper was half way up the pitch allowed the
striker to knock the ball past him and then follow the ball as he shepherded it into an empty net.
 |
| Wainuiomata make it 1-0 Photo : The JourneyFan |
This
prompted wild celebrations from the Wainui fans and they broke into
their club song (their version of It's a grand old team to play for)
just as they finished it, the player who had played the through ball
picked it up on the left wing cut inside and fired a shot across the
goal and it was 2-0 to Wainuiomata.
 |
| 1 minute later and it's 2-0 Wainui Photo : The JourneyFan |
From
then on it was all Wainuiomata, they were getting to the ball first,
when they lost it they were chasing it down and winning it back.
Naenae were still competing but Wainuiomata simply wanted it more and
it showed. Watson had barked out instructions to his players to play
towards the corners as that was where they were beating them and they
did that. They didn't add to the scoring but 2-0 was enough to secure
themselves a place in Capital 1 for next season.
How they
will do, who knows but if they can get a crowd each week that was
half as big and boisterous as the one that was at this game, they
will make for a great day out.
 |
| Wainuiomata Promoted to Capital 1 Photo The JourneyFan |
Comments
Post a Comment