Voyle Park Rangers

Golden Boot

And the competition is on ….

Drum roll please....

Man of the Match

The Player of the Day goes to Runty. I wasn’t sure if I should give him the 3 points for playing well all game, coming out and commanding his area, leaping to save everything and clear calling – or to give him minus 5 for showing off by telling everyone he would save the penalty and then doing so. The sheer arrogance of the man! (but aren’t we glad we have a ‘keeper like that).

I’ve then awarded a point each to Lester, Clayton, and the 2 Dave H’s for their stubborn defensive work. Despite the fancy footwork and clever passing, the opposition just couldn’t find a way through.

This means that Lester takes the lead for MVP with Gareth a point back. Norm and Dave Hall are also chasing hard.

Team Player 

Team man goes to Lester for his talking and presence towards the end of the game – rallying, encouraging and pushing the defensive effort.

Cam still leads the points table with his early season run of 2 points - with a screaming gaggle of gritty guys hunting him down.

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Here we go, here we go .....

Voyle Park 1, Toros FC 0

The raging blue juggernaut continues to roll on. Despite the whinging and dodgy penalty call, Toros FC joined the trail of broken teams at the feet of the masters……..

OK maybe getting a bit carried away, but three league games, three wins and no goals conceded is certainly a unique experience for the club.

Interesting goal by Lester. A real speculator that the keeper couldn’t seem to stop even after 3 attempts. Never seen anyone actually kick a googly before.

Another day where you would have to say that we weren’t exactly on top of our game. Passing was laboured and we were caught on the ball a fair amount. Still we had our chances, continued to pressure out wide, looked to pass and were stout in defence. Credit where it’s due, they had some really skilful players. Luckily they never thought about actually shooting.

The drama in the last 7 minutes (or 10 minutes according to their watch) certainly added a bit of spice to the afternoon. A last minute penalty due to a trip outside of the box should have surprised us – but you got the feeling that it was always going to happen. Funny how fair play and ‘call it as you see it’ goes out of the window for some teams when they go one down.

The highlights of the day:

1. Runty fisted well at the back and came quickly when needed, screaming to let us know.
   
2. Pretty sure Dave Hill never blew the whistle in the first half – mainly because he didn’t stop talking
   
3. Not many people could run around while wearing jersey, jacket, shirt and bib – anyone who can keep cool wearing all that should be called Fonzy (I know, over the head of you youngsters).
   
4. Debate rages as to who psyched out the penalty taker – the ‘keeper who told him that he’d save it anyway or the baboon making funny noises at the edge of the box
   
5. Arguments raged, people ranted at the referee, accusations flew – but the normal two culprits weren’t involved. One missed the game so he wouldn’t be put in that situation and the other wore an angelic expression through out.
   
6. Training this week will focus on not shaking the hand in pain after a hand ball that the ref didn’t initially see.
   

 Thanks to Dave for being ref in the first half.

The heat is on

Golden Boot

With a goal fest the other week, the competition for top goal scorer is well underway

Man of the Match

and the points go to 

Gareth had another great game – both going forward and tracking back. Unfortunately it was mainly chasing the ball in the middle and not scoring goals but that was just the nature of the game.

Did you know that statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren’t grumpy? (sorry Gareth, not sure why that came to mind..)

Clayton and Dave Hall both defended well, and added a real bite on attack (and not in a Suarez way).

Lester, as ever, showed he is the glue in the middle of the park. Dictating play and defending ….. hard.

Lester and Gareth are the season’s front runners so far with 6 points each, with Norm and Dave Hall chasing hard. 

Team Player

This has gone to two guys this week.

Their young fit goal keeper was slowly (and I mean slowly) going to get the ball from the dog park – killing time and being a tosser in the process. The rest of us might have been knackered but Bob ran (leapt the fence in a single bound) and collected the ball, speeding up the game and making a real statement to the opposition.

Mark volunteered to ref the second half – knowing they were a pack of niggly whingers but he wasn’t prepared to let their ref carry on.

Thanks guys

Cam remains in top spot, with four guys chasing him (sounds like Cam’s normal Friday night really)

Bugger

Voyle Park 1, Waikato Dragons 2

Well I suppose the winning streak had to come to an end sometime. Shame it meant the end of our cup run, doubly so as it was to a pack of ……….

Losing 1 – 2 to a second division team is nothing to be scoffed at and in previous years we would probably have been satisfied with the result. Not this year though! Yes they were the better side but we also had our moments and we definitely had the wood on them in the last 15 minutes.

A sub for the second half would have been good – lots of running was done in that midfield. Lucky they love the exercise.

Another goal to the rampaging Clayton - once more showing the strikers how it’s done.

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Player of the Day

Our classy middle

This week I might have to put aside my bias towards defenders. It hurts to say this, but it was entirely a game for the attackers.

I’m going with the fact that Lester, Gareth, Geoff and Norm controlled the midfield and constructed goal after goal – either for themselves or others. As I’m way too old for hard decisions – they can all be player of the day and have 2 points. Just don’t invite me to your group hug.

Other worthy mentions:

• Another clean sheet for Runty
  
• Campbell dropping back into defence.
  
• Dave Hill and Chris doing the real work at the back some the glory hunters up the front could keep scoring
  

Team man – I’ve gone for Gareth because of the way he switched sides when things were really blowing out. Not strictly speaking good for ‘our team’ – but good sportsmanship.

 Thanks also to Dave Hill for being ref in the first half.

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It was a biggie

Voyle Park 15, TA Sports Rebels 0

I’m at a bit of a loss for what to say this week (hard to imagine I know).

15 nil is a hiding in anyone’s language and while it’s obviously great to win and score goals, a victory this easy feels somewhat hollow.

Normally it’s rude to call the opposition a pack of girls – but in this case it would be rude not to call them that. Except for the crippled goalie of course – he certainly had more balls than the other guy who went off injured.

Forgetting the score line, the things that were really pleasing are:

• We held our shape and style – many teams score 5 or 6 and then just mess around. We didn’t, we played to our pattern right to the end
  
• We didn’t slack off at the back despite the goals going in at the other end. Letting in a soft goal would have really sucked.
  

Playing in defence for them in the second half (yep explains why you lot scored so easily), there was basically no way to stop the TVP juggernaut. Playing with width, always having players looking for the ball and guys running into space is simply hard to defend against.

The big questions from the day

• Will Clayton be claiming the strikers spot every week now?
  
• Can Gareth ever score a goal without me helping him out?
  
• If you get sent off for calling a referee “love”, should you be calling the opposition “love” when you ref?
  
• If Geoff had no legs, would he still run non-stop and be the quickest on the pitch?
  

I guess I had better go through the goal scorers

• Gareth 4
  
• Norm 3
  
• Clayton 2
  
• Geoff 2
  
• FJ 2
  
• Lester 1
  

Player of the Day

In Norm we trust

Player of the day went to Norm. Tireless work down the right hand side with great balls sent across goal. Couple of good chances thrown in as well.

Lester picks up another couple of points for his control and distribution in the mid-field. A pivot on attack on staunch on defense

Point each for Phil (great goal and determined running all game) and Dave Hill, (our rock at the back).

 Once again Cam gets team man for coming along when injured and being ref.

Up the Rangers

TVP 2, Zig Zag 0

This is almost getting boring – sigh, yep we won again, same old same old……….. and long may this continue!!

Not a pretty win – but one never in question.

A decisive goal from Phil (left foot and all) and a cool penalty from Lester resulted in a 2 nil win.

Following the discrete transfer of some financial “grease” (I’m assuming here that the cheque is in the mail), I am both humbled and honoured to announce that Sir Runtibald of Goalvale (he who graces us with his magnificent presence, a giant amongst men) recorded a clean sheet! A feat of historic significance – not seen across the long winter days of seasons past (well last season anyway). That’s right, you heard correct – a clean sheet, a big fat zero in their goals column. Yet another landmark occasion for this team on the rise.

If the cheque is warm, fuzzy and very large, I might even say that Runty kept out every shot despite receiving no help at all from the other 12 players. Hey – I’m more than happy to prostitute myself!!

It was entertaining to watch rugby player bounce off rugby player – though you would have to say that Phil won easily on points. Not only did he bowl his opposite quite nicely but he was by far the better football player (and way more coordinated – as Norm can testify, the other guy was a tad late and agricultural with a few tackles)

We were definitely the better team and apart from a brief spell of hoofaballitis, we tried to play constructive.

Thanks once more to Cam who reffed another fine game. Telling that the opposition is always happy for him to ref the whole game. Wonder how long this will continue though – we all know how competitive strikers are and Lester is getting ahead in the golden boot stakes.

The noise from the supporters on the side-line was deafening. Surprised that Noise Control wasn’t called – Bob was a monster with his chanting, supporter songs and Mexican waves.

Practice Wednesday – 6:30 so that the city dwellers have time to pop on over to our country club.

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