PNBHS NEWS

1st XI Football v Wanganui Athletic Reserves

 
Picture of Ella Mitchell
1st XI Football v Wanganui Athletic Reserves
by Ella Mitchell - Thursday, 1 June 2017, 3:32 PM
 

1st XI Football v Wanganui Athletic Reserves 


On Saturday 27 May the 1st XI Football team played Wanganui Athletic Reserves at Wembley Park on a fairly heavy but relatively decent pitch, considering the amount of rain we've had recently. The boys started very positively; their confidence on the ball and ability to stretch the opposition by maintaining possession for protracted periods reminiscent of the wonderful Brazilian World Cup team of 1982. Two good goals capped a great overall first half performance. However, we did give the opposition some hope before half time by conceding a penalty which they duly converted. 2-1 half time score. The early exchanges of the second half were again very positive for us and we registered twice in the first 20 minutes of the half, making the score 4-1. At this point it looked like we were about to cut loose and bag a hatful and it was only our profligacy in front of goal which prevented us from doing so. This gave the opposition some encouragement and, to their credit, their positive attitude and effective play yielded 2 more goals late on. One was a great goal from distance and the other a dubious penalty. Final score was 4-3 to the 1st XI and overall it goes down as a very pleasing performance which demonstrates the spirit, skill and momentum we are beginning to build. There were lots of strong individual performances but man-of-the match goes to Kaisei Lee, our international student from Japan, who was outstanding at centre back. 

Next up for the team is a league game on Saturday against the Marist development team.