Kiwi FC v Boca Seniors

Kiwi FC surged to the top of the table with a resounding 6-0 win over Boca Seniors on the back of another solid second half. The Kiwis have played a lot of their best football in the second half of this season’s matches, regularly bringing on fresh legs and wearing the opposition down. Saturday was no different and after a rusty first half, Kiwi FC’s class and strength showed in the end to bag the points.

A combination of poor weather and defaulting opposition meant that Kiwi FC had played only once in the past 6 weeks; so they started the game a little slowly. Some good communication and patience from Cappy and Kris at the back meant that the side soon found some flow and began to dominate possession. Danny and Steve A controlled the midfield well and Kiwis regularly stretched their opposition; using the full width of the pitch. Mike and Dave made some incursive runs from their wing back positions, and Nick and Steve Mc also sought to take the attack into the opposition area, supporting the front two of James and Grog.

Though despite all their dominance, the Kiwis just couldn’t seem to put the ball in the back of the net. Cappy and Danny both came close with fine shots, Grog and Steve A also had chances and James and Nick both missed when it looked easier to score; though at least Nick made contact with the ball.

So at half time it was a rather disappointing 0-0. The lads all agreed they had played rather poorly but there was a sense that the goals would come and it was just a matter of a little more patience. Grog and Dave were replaced by Sam and Bede.

Come they did; shortly into the second half the floodgates opened. Kiwi FC continued their dominance of possession but in the second half they turned that dominance into goals. Danny started the rout after following through on a wicked strike from outside the area by Steve Mc. The goalie couldn’t handle the shot and Danny was there to hammer home the rebound. The Boca players then spent the next 5 minutes arguing with the ref that it was off-side, but he wasn’t going to change his mind, and this spurred the Kiwis on to net more goals.

The second goal came shortly afterwards. After some good build up work by Nick in midfield, James latched onto his pass and headed for goal. He played his way into the box and rolled the ball past the keeper. 2-0

Steve B came on for Steve Mc and immediately had an impact on the game. He worked hard and made some driving runs down the left; teasing the Boca defence and keeping Kiwi FC down the right end of the pitch. It was from one of these field positions that the third goal came. The Kiwis won a free kick wide out on the left, Steve A stepped up and curled a lovely ball into the box, Sam rose unchallenged and placed a perfectly directed header into the back of the net. This was getting easy now.

More goals were to come as the Kiwis kept piling forward. Cappy was making some good runs forward; passing it out of defence and then following his passes up. He wasn’t going to be denied having his name on the score sheet, some great build up work saw Cappy launch a stinging shot from just outside the box, the keeper had no chance and Cappy got his just rewards for another fine performance.

James bagged himself another shortly after that. Played through by a great pass by Steve A, he hit it low to the bottom left corner and that made it 5.

With credit to the Boca players they never gave up and still threatened the Kiwi goal once or twice, but Leighton was always on hand to clean up in goal. Kiwi FC were keen to record their first clean sheet of the season and even though a couple of times it looked like they might concede, it was the Kiwis who scored again. An excellent run into the box by Danny saw him tripped up and a penalty was deservedly earned. Smelling a hat-trick, James stepped up to take it. The kick was delayed by the opposition arguing with the ref about where it should be taken from, but the spot was marked on the ground, and nobody was going to miss from 8 yards out. 6-0

That was the last time the scorers would be troubled for the day, though Boca managed to finish the game with only 9 players after having a player sent off. It was just the result that Kiwi FC wanted going into the short Christmas break. They can look down at the rest of the league from the top of the table, ahead by 2 points still with a game in hand.

Cheers and farewell to Steve Bethune who played his last game for the club, sorry for not letting you take the penalty. Steve has been a quality member of the team both on and off the pitch and he will be missed.