MIRAMAR RANGERS 2nds 6 KAPITI COAST UNITED 1
Men's Capital Division 1
St Pat's Turf, Wellington
Sunday 23rd July, 2017
Attendance : 52
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| The view from St Pat's turf |
In my quest to get to every club in Wellington I have yet to visit Kapiti Coast United. I keep meaning to and this year would have been good as up until this game their only loss had come in the Chatham Cup, so when I realised that they needed only one point to win the title and they were playing second placed Miramar, it seemed a must go. The only downside was that as it was a Miramar home game I wouldn't get to visit Weka Park (where I don't think I've been since I played my first ever game of football there when I was seven!). As it was I did get to visit a new ground as the game was transferred off DaveyF park and on to St Pat's turf.
Kapiti Coast United (KCU) were formed in 2002 by the merger of Raumati Hearts and Paraparaumu United. Raumati Hearts had been formed in 1960 and with some of the founding members being Hearts fans from Scotland that's how they got their name. They played in the Central League from 1976 until 1999, mainly in the lower leagues, they did reach the premier division twice. For a long time they were the only club on the Kapiti Coast and were probably better known for their massive preseason Coastlands junior tournament and in later years their very strong masters team, which benefited from many ex National League players deciding to retire on the Kapiti Coast.
Paraparaumu United were founded in 1992 and lasted for 10 years, in that time they rose from Central League Division 3 up to Central Premier, played 228 League & Cup games winning 50% of them. Always a small club with only a couple of teams, after a horrendous season in 2001 when they scored just seven goals and lost all 18 games they joined Raumati (now known as Kapiti Hearts) to create Kapiti Coast United.
Since 2002 the club has been in Capital one or Capital Premier, they won Capital one in 2006 and 2014. Last season they only won one game and have found themselves back in Capital one.
Going into this game KCU were unbeaten at the top of the table and needing just one point to secure the championship and promotion back to the Capital Premier Division. Miramar, despite being in second place, weren't exactly what you could call hot on their heels, being nine points behind and their slim chance of snatching the title relying on KCU losing all their remaining games and having a better goal difference than the coasters.
When it comes to goals, I expected to see a few, these two teams had scored 97 goals between them in their 15 games so far this season and Miramar in particular have had some spectacular scorelines such as 9-3, 7-5 & 7-0.
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| Eric Molloy (MR) goes past KCU's Nick O'Hagan The JourneyFan |
In the first 20 minutes, KCU were playing well although neither team were dominating, that was until the first of two four minute flurrys. That was when Andy Bevin, Tommy Jackson and Cai McClean scored three goals in four minutes. The second came eight minutes from half time when Eric Molloy, Tommy Jackson (again) and CJ Atkinson scored another three goals in four minutes and took the score to 6-0.
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| KCU's Lachie Fay - impressive performance The JourneyFan |
When a game is 6-0 at half time you don't really expect much in the second, but there were a few things, the first was a horrible injury to KCU's Fraser Leith, who had collided in mid air with Phil Imray and landed awkwardly on his neck, luckily it was worse than it looked and by the end of the game he was up and walking about (although very slowly). To KCU's credit they kept attacking and were trying to get something back and they were rewarded when Jayden Stratford scored in the 66th minute but there was to be no miraculous comeback. Miramar did get the ball in the net again but it was ruled out for offside and there was an impressive performance from KCU substitute Lachie Fay, but there was no trophy for them this week.
I think I could be a jinx, last season I went to Endeavour Park to watch Waterside Karori take on Western Suburbs, when they needed just three points to win the Capital Premier division - the result that day was 6-0 to Wests. KCU needed just a point and they lost 6-1, they play Wainuiomata at home next Saturday and should lift the trophy, but I think I'll stay away just in case!
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