Whakatane vs Ngongotaha

Whakatane's Bay one side travelled to Ngongotaha and took away all three points with a well deserved 2-1 win.
With many players missing from the starting line up due to injury and other commitments, Whakatane had to call up three new players to the team to help out. Gavin Rothwell played well in goal while youngsters Jordan Whittaker and Ethan Kilgareff stepped up to play their first ever senior game of football for the club.

The Ngongotaha side was a mixture of older and younger players who came out from the start playing great football, passing the ball around the park. Whakatane, although slow to react, then began to find their own passing game and this lead to a couple of early chances that went just wide of the goal.
Connor Davies, playing in a new position at right back was linking well with Justin Nicols to provide the strikers with shooting opportunities. Clifford Obrien and Grant Johnson kept alot of possession in the midfield and worked well with the back line to ensure Whakatane played most of the game in the opposition half. 

As Whakatane began to gather more momentum the Ngongotaha side also picked up the pace and soon found themselves leading when one of their players had time on tha ball just outside the 18 yard box and managed to chip the ball over the Whakatane keeper and into the goal.

Moments from the kick off Whakatane answered back when Carwyn Evans pounced onto a ball just inside the 18 yard box and drove home the equiliser.

The two sides went into the break at 1-1 but not long after the second half resumed Whakatane were awarded a corner. They capitilised on this when the ball went to the far post and was passed back across the goal by Nicols into the path of Evans who made no mistake in finding the back of the net again.

A number of changes were made following this which saw the introduction of Whittaker and Kilgareff. Within moments of coming on Whittaker almost scored from a header while Kilgareff showed class with some great first touches. Both players didnt look out of place and were welcomed back by the senior members of the squad.

Special mentions to Neil Maslin who played superbly in defence and midfiled while Mark Thompson and Andrew Mitchell were solid in the backs.

McDonalds Player of the Day went to Connor Davies for settling into his new position so well.