NO LONGER A JINX

SEATOUN 3 UPPER HUTT HOOLIGANS 0
Capital Division Two
Seatoun Park, Wellington
Saturday 28th July, 2016
Att :  100 or so

Seatoun AFC 2018 Capital Division 2 Champions The JourneyFan


Time was....Seatoun were the best club in the country. I was going to say biggest, but that's something they have never been, they haven't even been the biggest on the Miramar peninsula! They were however once the best club in NZ that was in 1957-58 when they won the Chatham Cup twice in a row, including setting a record winning score of 7-1 against Christchurch City.

Seatoun AFC 1957 Venus Shield and Chatham Cup Champions

The were in the inaugural Central League in 1968 and spent 15 of the first 20 seasons in the top division. From the 2000's the men's first team dropped down and bounced between Capital Premier and Capital Two. It was the Women that picked up the mantle becoming one of the dominant women's teams in Wellington from 2000 on. Times have changed and the women's team despite still boasting quality players like Annie Ohlsen and Julia Baldwin have not been able to keep up with the younger teams of Wellington United, Upper Hutt City and Wairarapa United. This season they have found themselves at the bottom of the W-League and struggling to field a team so much that they formed an alliance with Island Bay United to ensure they had enough players to play and avoid the draconian $2000 default fee!

The club obviously saw this coming and had parted company with top women's coach Gary Jenkins (who went to Petone) and decided to concentrate on the Men's side again. To do this they recruited player coach Marc Capstick. Marc in turn recruited his brother Dave to help him out. Of the 40 players they had used in 2017 only three remained. Gary Romijn arrived and was joined by his brother Karl who had started the season at ambitious North Wellington but due to family commitments was unable to commit to more than one training a week. The result has been a pretty formidable team that had secured promotion last week and only lost one game in the league all season.
 
Zoe Capstick (daughter of Dave, Niece of Marc) with the trophy The JourneyFan

They could win the league this week, so I decided that would be the game I'd go to. I then quickly realised that I could quite possibly be a jinx given my record over the last two seasons. in 2016 I turned up at Endeavour Park to watch Waterside play Western Suburbs when Waterside only needed one point to win the Venus Shield, they lost 6-0! Last season I turned up at St Pats to see Kapiti Coast United take on Miramar with KCU only needing a point to win Capital One. Miramar played a very heavily Team Wellington influenced side and won 6-1! So there was a danger that Seatoun could lose this game on that record. But I had never actually been to watch the Seatoun men's first team. I'd seen the women's team quite a few times and Seatoun Park is one of the nicer grounds in Wellington to watch football so I decided to head out there, jinx or not.

They were up against Upper Hutt Hooligans, who despite being second bottom had drawn 1-1 with Seatoun in the first round. The Hooligans are also an experienced side that have been together for a long time, they even had ex All White, Phil Patterson on the bench! Even more impressive was not only their attractive orange kit but the fact it had the player names on the back as well.

It took Seatoun just 10 minutes to open the scoring when Brett McBride rose to power in a header from a James Hill corner and from then on it looked like it was going to be Seatoun's day. Just before half time, James Hill curled a shot from about 20 meters out. Upper Hutt's keeper, who had been playing quite well up to this point, decided it was going wide and left it. To be fair to him it did look like it was going wide but it took on some spin worthy of Shane Warne and ended up in the back of the net.

James "Hilly" Hill celebrating his freak goal The JourneyFan

They say a two goal lead is the worst to defend, but it wasn't a problem for Seatoun. In the 66th minute Kaita Sem hit a screamer from about 30 meters out and that was the game. The two main talking points after this were the Hooligans having a chance when ex All White, Patterson broke through but with only the keeper to beat ; his shot was so wayward that even a Capital 12 player would have been embarrassed! There was also two bizarre incidents, the first when a through ball was clearly controlled by a Seatoun player's hand, but despite calls of handball and even the Seatoun player stopping as he knew he'd handled it the ref didn't blow. The result was Seatoun played to the whistle and a through ball was played to Karl Romijn who took on the keeper but couldn't get past as he was unceremoniously taken out in a clear foul which should have resulted in a penalty, but yet the ref again failed to blow his whistle and instead awarded a goal kick, much to the chargin of Romijn.


The game ended 3-0, meaning I am no longer a jinx and a deserving Seatoun side are the Capital Two Champions for 2018. Which also allowed me to get some celebration photos.


CHECK THEM OUT HERE




Not a penalty according to the ref The JourneyFan




 

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