Charity Cup challenge stumbles at the 1st hurdle
July 8th
Gore 5 vs Old Boys 4
There would be no repeat of last seasons Old Boys vs Gore Charity Cup final as the teams were drawn against each other in the semi final. Sadly only four teams entered this season in further signs that the league is in peril.
Old Boys traveled to Gore hoping to make better memories than their earlier trip to Gore which ended 5-0. The teams were met with a strong wind and a pitch that had seen better days. With the toss lost we faced a tough 45 minutes playing into the teeth of the breeze.
Ultimately a bad toss to lose as we found ourselves struggling to clear the ball. Gore scored early from a quickly taken short corner while our defense were still setting up. The lead doubled quickly with a failed clearance leaving the striker to go through 1:1.
Both teams struggled with the wind and the mud and the ball was difficult to control at times. Robbie was able to get one back for us to provide some brief respite before two errors at the back allowed Gore to pile on the misery prior to half time.
A 4-1 deficit wasn’t insurmountable but almost on cue the wind dropped away. Frank came off with an injury and Scotty D moved into goal with a switch to three at the back. We had more ball going forward but were unable to convert a couple of good chances while we looked a little shakier at the back which eventually led to a further goal for Gore who were putting on a clinic in front of goal.
When things couldn’t get much worse, they did with the referee missing a stone cold sending off of the Gore keeper when he took out John after he had rounded him. There was silence around the ground as everyone waited for the inevitable sending off. The coaching staff were dumbstruck when even a foul wasn’t given.
Alas, the guys dug deep and were able to add three goals in the final fifteen minutes to make the Gore bench start to sweat. It wasn’t enough though as our shooting boots had let us down as had our defending in the first stanza. Always extremely hard to win games when conceding five goals.
After a week off we host Gore in the league in Invercargill as our next fixture.
