No lack of effort from our Men’s and Women’s First Teams and Reserves as we hosted another double header weekend at Michaels Ave (click here to see the match programme) and with a win, two draws and a close loss it’s not a bad weekend for the Ponies – read below to find out how each of the four games played out and who the media team picked out for special praise.
Men’s Reserves: Lads Can’t Break Deadlock in Six Goal Thriller
A first ever hattrick from Athan Ratnam wasn’t enough for the Reserves to beat bottom of the table Albany on Saturday early afternoon as a series of errors from Seb Bouvier’s team allowed Albany back in the contest. Ellerslie did manage to hold a lead for a decent period in the 1st half following Athan’s 11th minute opening goal. The catalyst for a scoring spree was Albany’s first goal in the 33rd min to Ethan McQuay.
Ellerslie responded quickly scoring within 5 mins when Athan grabbed his second and best goal of the match as he hit a sweet half volley which clipped the inside of the near post, giving the keeper no chance.
Not wanting to be left behind Albany scored again to level the game just 2 minutes later in the 40th min and that was the end of the scoring spree until deep into the second half.
Athan once again put us in the lead with his 3rd goal in the 73rd minute but true to form Albany equalised again, just 5 minutes later in the 78th minute – truly proving the old saying that the most dangerous time is just after you score a goal.
Media Picks Man of The Match:
Athan Ratnam: No surprise here – when you grab your first ever hatrick at any level for the club (as far as he remembers) you have to pick up MOM honours. Great work Athan!
Men’s First Team: Two Missed Penalties and One Converted Corner See Men Go Down in 89th Minute
Round 8 of the Men’s NRFL Division 1 saw Ellerslie take on second placed Albany United at The Ave on Saturday afternoon. With Dave Edmonson still out, and another change in the line up, this was going to be a tough fixture for the Ponies. They really showed up for it though, and were definitely the better team for a lot of the game. However, it wasn’t meant to be and a late goal in the dying stages saw the lads go down 1 nil in a game they deserved at least a point in.
Coming off the back of a 2-1 win to Bucklands Beach last week, the boys were in better spirits despite the tough upcoming fixture against Albany United. Last season Albany put 5 past the Ponies, so with that in mind they knew they had to come out firing.
Another week and another different line-up saw Pat Grey return from injury and do a straight swap into the midfield for Andre Munro-Wilson, who picked up his own injury last weekend. He paired with Rory Kelly in front of an unchanged backline. Kojo Norku and Josh Lai retained their spots out wide, and Ryan Morrow and Rowan Corbett took their places up top. Only the one change in the starting XI meant the lads could build on what they were starting to create last weekend.
Albany took the field in that garish neon orange again, which stood out even more against the gloomy backdrop of Michaels Ave. Ellerslie came out of the sheds strong, with a desire to keep possession and attack every chance they got. It resulted in a good few chances that we unfortunately couldn’t capitalise on.
It wasn’t until the 20th minute that our biggest chance came. Rei Ogawa-Bracey won a header in our half, and angled it straight to Lai, who bounced it quickly off Kelly. From right in front of our dugout, he sent in a long ball to a running Morrow, who collected it at the top of the box. Morrow used his chest to touch it first time past the first defender, and just as he was lining up to shoot, Andrew O’Toole put in a diving challenge from behind, taking Morrow out. The referee didn’t hesitate and pointed to the spot in what was a clear penalty. O’Toole received a yellow for his clumsy efforts.
Lai stepped up to take the penalty, but unfortunately his placement wasn’t the best and David Masters picked the right direction to dive, resulting in a big save from the Albany keeper. Lai would be disappointed with that attempt as it didn’t reflect his ability at all, but he’s a player with so much class and I would still back him 100% to convert the next one if the opportunity came about. Huge credit to Ellerslie though, as it would’ve been easy to switch off after losing that momentum, but they didn’t let it deter them and still carried on how they started.
It only took ten minutes for the tide to change as Albany had their big moment in the 30th minute. Thomson Nkoy picked up the ball on the left and drove towards the box. Adam Scott wasn’t able to deal with him so Seb Poelman came across to help when Nkoy entered the 18-yard. Nkoy felt the contact from Poelman as he came in shoulder-to-shoulder and was quick to go to ground, resulting in the referee pointing to the spot for a second time. For a team that complained about all the soft challenges being called, they were awfully happy to have that one. Poelman could feel hard done by in that call, but such is football, and the referee can only call what he sees. Our penalty wasn’t the greatest, but Albany’s attempt was even worse, as the man in orange failed to even get the ball on target. Bolharyn only had to watch as the ball sailed well over the crossbar and into the safety fence.
With two missed penalties, a few missed chances and a whole lot of complaining, the game stayed locked up at the half. Ellerslie were impressive in the opening 45 and you could tell Albany was rattled. With a lot of space separating the two teams on the table, this game could have been one-sided but Ellerslie were not giving away anything easily. It made for an entertaining match of football, and it was really great to see the lads out their fighting for everything.
Aside from the two penalties, the second half was very similar to the first. Ellerslie created a good few chances, and Albany fancied themselves a couple of times too. Morrow and Corbett were dangerous up front again, both showcasing their pace and strength to run down every ball that came their way. Norku was instrumental in creating chances down the left with his nifty footwork. Pat Grey was a pleasant surprise in the midfield after originally taking the field as a left back before he got injured. He was vital in the centre with his ability to win and retain the ball.
As the time ticked down, Ellerslie were fighting tooth and nail to find that magic goal and not concede. A big chance late in the game saw Corbett and Lai link up on a counter attack, but they couldn’t convert. Right after that, Albany come down the other end and managed to win a corner. It was upsetting to see them convert of said corner in the 89th minute to put them one nil up. Tom Webb went up for a free header in the 6-yard box and from such close range, he made sure not to miss.
Ellerslie tried to get back into it with the limited time they had, but it wasn’t meant to be and the game finished at 1-0. A truly disappointing loss, and one I felt the boys didn’t deserve. But such is football; you can have all the momentum and it only takes one moment for the game to change. Despite the loss, that’s probably the best I’ve seen the back line play thus far, so hopefully they build on that in the coming weeks. The lads weren’t without their attacking opportunities, but they’ll need to find that last execution in the box to get themselves on the front foot early in games.
The Ponies will look to bounce back next week when they take on Greenhithe Catimba in their first game of the Chatham Cup. They’ll be away at Rosedale Park so will need as many travelling supporters as possible. Cup fixtures are always exciting ones so make sure you don’t miss out!
Media Picks Man of The Match:
Rory Kelly: Kelly picks up his second Man of the Match from me after his first-half hat trick for the Reserves earlier in the season. With his strongest performance for the First Team to date, his work rate in the middle was unmatched—he popped up everywhere to win the ball and provide support when we had possession. He showcased his ability to shift the ball quickly or dribble when needed. Great performance from the midfielder.
Women’s Reserves: Ladies Return to Winning Ways in Convincing Performance
It was fitting for mothers day that Ella grabbed the opening goal of this fixture – an un-named Ellerslie AFC substitute quickly predicted a mothers day hatrick for Ella – that’s some kind of jinx right there!
While the jinxer cost Ella two more goals, she didn’t cost the Ponies two more goals as they grabbed one more before halftime (via Charli Marvin – who incidentally loves scoring against Hamilton) and a second half goal to Sarah Robinson.
Unlike the first game between these two when Ellerslie were able to keep a clean sheet, Hamilton did get a consolation goal in the 84th minute, despite the best efforts of Claire Alderton who had stepped into goal early in the game when normal keeper Lauren McKenzie had taken a knock in the warmup.
It’s fair to say that Claire’s cameo in goal pretty much stole the spotlight in this game – but after the game it’s reported she couldn’t wait to get into something more suitable, but decided for a HUP Orange highlighter jumper instead.
That result leaves the Ponies Reserves just one win off top spot with now a 4 point gap between themselves and Hamilton Wanderers in 3rd.
Media Picks Woman of the Match:
Claire Alderton: Claire gets our pick after going into goal last minute and pulling off that white keeper kit in rainfall. She made some great saves and was unlucky to not keep a clean sheet.
Women’s First Team: A Point Earned Heals Some Scars From Previous Fixture
Last time Hamilton Wanderers played the Ponies a gutting loss in the last couple of minutes caused some mental scarring for the Ponies – it also came on the back of a even more upsetting draw in our opening game of the Premier league in 2020 after losing a 3-0 lead at halftime. In both of those games a strong first half performance from the Ponies was matched in the second half by Hamilton Wanderers with the only outlier being last years home game against Wanderers when Ellerslie again scored first but couldn’t keep Wanderers from equalising before halftime and then the ladies from Hamilton cruised away with the win in the second half with two more goals.
All of that history means there is a little bit of emotion for the Ponies players when they take the field against ladies in blue from Hamilton – but with a win last week maybe this was the time to break the hoodo..
It certinaly looked that way when Ellerslie came out of the blocks firing and started getting chances come the way of Britney, Kat Gow and Kim Mesias in the forward positions – at the other end debutant Marie Green was quietly going about her business at centre back, laying foundations for as strong of a debut as you would ever see.
Ellerslie were getting into their work well and it was frustrating the more fancied Wanderers side – which showed when the referee wanderer over to have a quiet chat with Stephen Cox, not sure what was said but gladly sanity prevailed and no card was issued and the game continued.
While neither side were creating much I think the home side was edging chances and that was evidenced as first Britney managed to rattle the crossbar with a shot and then Kat Gow who had been played in with a reverse ball from Maddy pulled her shot across the face of goal.
As the half dragged on the Ponies fans might have feared for the outcome of the match as the first half was normally our time in this match up and we were looking at 5mins of time left and nothing to show for it.
That’s when Britney stepped up and made a strong run down our left flank and beat her marker for pace and as the cover defender came across Britney had managed to get into the box which was crucial as the Hamilton player went in for a strong tackle and smashed the Ellerslie #16 but the referee after some pondering pointed to the spot much to the wrath of the Wanderers head coach.
Live I didn’t think it was a penalty as the player from my angle looked to have slid infront of Britney and hooked her leg back around and the result of Britney’s pace and power hitting such a powerful tackle made it look worse than it was – however having watched the video it’s this scribes opinion that the Wanderers defender actually goes over the ball and her tackle is far too high to be safe – I do think she gets a bit of the ball but also she gets a lot of Britney on the way through as well.
Our opinions on the tackle are ultimately void as the referee despite his poor positioning for the challenge ended up giving the penalty and for the second week in a row Leigh McKenzie stepped up and smashed her spot kick home.
A great way to head into halftime with a lead and with a decent performance in the first 45 behind us – the ladies and the coaches were confident they could keep it going in the second half. I don’t think we knew how hard that would be.
Ellerslie took the kickoff for the second half and clipped it forward looking to pin Hamilton back in their own third early in the half, but after a couple of failed balls forward from Wanderers they played a pretty average high pass to their forward who had Marie right close behind her – it looked like the quality of the ball forward was going to give us enough time to get some more bodies behind the ball – but the Wanderers striker had other ideas.
She moved to her left and stuck out her right foot and with the outside of the foot she flicked the ball perfectly into the path of Helen Arjomandi – who with the benefit of momentum was able to keep in-front of the retreating Kim Oosterbeek and Kim Mesias and with Marie taken out of the play by the flick it was left to Charli to try and stop the ex Fern from getting a shot off.
She did her best to come and block but a clever nutmeg from the Wanderers player gave her a one v one with Erin and although Charli had forced her to slow down the retreating defenders just couldn’t quite get to the striker before she fired a left foot shot past Erin and levelled the score – just 1 minute into the second half.
The fear from the spectators was that with such an early goal to a strong second half team that we were gonna struggle to hang on
The stats from the game certainly suggest the second half was once again Wanderers as they had 5 of their 7 shots (3 on target) in the second 45 while the Ponies were not able to get a single shot in the 2nd half while they recorded 5 (3 on target) in the first half.
However these ladies are made of tough stuff and they dug in and defended for their lives and while we didn’t see much action for the Ponies in the Hamilton goalbox we did see the Hamilton team get increasingly frustrated that they could grab the winning goal and two cards were awarded in the second half to wanderers players.
Coach Shiffman sensing his team were starting to tire chucked on two subs just past the 80th min mark to try and at least secure the point with Hollie Leona returning from injury to replace Kat Gow and Faith Moa making her debut gave Charli Collard a well deserved rest.
Thankfully for the Ponies the subs got stuck into their work and the team continued to work hard and deny Hamilton – however it was obvious that come the final whistle the ladies were disappointed with the draw having not been able to find a way to create good chances in the second half – it’s probably a sign of the progress the team have made this season with the players keen to build on last weeks win and get back to back maximum points.
Media Picks Man of The Match:
Britney Cunningham-Lee: We don’t often go against the coaches here in the Michaels Ave media room, and to be fair Marie was awesome in her debut – we just loved seeing Britney back in the middle of the park and running at players again and the strong resilient attitude that the Ponies showed in the second half was personified by Britney when she got up and played on after taking a huge challenge in the process of winning our penalty.
FIRST TEAM MATCH REPORTS via COMET
Ellerslie Association Football Club 