Old Boys travel to Tech
Old Boys vs Dunedin Tech
Tahuna Park 11th May
Tech 5-1
The Chatham Cup round is always an exciting one for the players as they get an opportunity to take on an out of town opposition and possibly a van trip. Old Boys drew Dunedin powerhouse Dunedin Tech at Tahuna Park, a daunting task.
With the Southland contingent coming back in we welcomed Conor, Laurent and Hayden plus Stouty for this trip and were without the services of Kyle, Dave, Harry & Matt. It was a youthful team that took the field with the exception of the two aged centre backs adding about 80 years to the team.
Tech were also sporting a youthful looking side and our intelligence reports suggested they weren’t quite as strong as the previous time we had gone up in 2015 and caught a 12-1 hiding.
Tech had the ascendency in possession and created some early chances as the team attempted to gel together. There poor finishing kept us in the game however and when the first goal did come on the 30-minute mark it was from a disappointing goal mouth scramble. Unfortunately, we compounded things two minutes later when a silly penalty was conceded. Terry gave a good fist of making the save but couldn’t quite keep it out.
This spurred the guys into action and Laurent scored a bit of a worldy off the back of Ethan’s cross. Chest and volley from the edge of the box leaving the keeper rooted to the spot. 2-1 down going into the half and things were looking ok.
As we returned to the fray we played well for 5 mins before the wheels fell off. The Tech striker caught everyone knapping with a 40-metre shot and then we conceded a second penalty for the match when Danny decided to take matters into his own hands literally. Off he went and with the penalty dispatched it was 4-1 and 10 men for the final 30.
Time for some subs and the boys did a good job to dig in and only concede one more but it was over as a contest early. The van trip home as always provided plenty of good laughs. Many of them at Danny’s expense and maybe a few at Liam’s singing.
Cup run over for 2019. Looking forward to 2020.
