Normal service has resumed

The sun crept over the hills flooding the pleasant valley with warmth. The heavy dew from the night before still clung to the earth stubbornly resisting the sun. A gentle breeze floated through the trees and over the fields. All was still and peaceful.

The tranquillity was brutally shattered by a 10 year old boy. They whip he used, probably a gift from a loved one, snapped and banged angrily, the noise reverberating off the close hills. It mixed with the shouts and whistles of the women’s rugby match with the tuneful beauty that you find when mixing Black Sabbath with The Cardiff Boys Choir singing “Jerusalem”. Yip, we had arrived in Stokes Valley. Our opponents, the Stokes Valley Sunshine, at that point second on the table, looked ready for a hefty tussle. Spiked hair, mullets and spiked mullets adorned the heads of the Vallians. For a moment we thought we were playing the wrong team as they all looked to be under the age of 25, an uncommon occurrence in our division.

Recent Public Service (PS) results had failed to impress. A one all draw with league strugglers the Uni Bombers the week before had left some smouldering embers of discontent. Within 10 minutes of kick off, those embers were alight. The Vallians immediately brought the attack to the PS defence. The first ten minutes was a case of both teams testing for possible breakpoints in the defensive line. The Vallians brought with them a hard competitive style of play. Ben Gleisner came under particular attention throughout the match, and was victim to a two foot, studs up, from behind tackle, that would normally have resulted in an instant red card, and a lengthy sideline suspension. However, Div 13 does not offer the luxury referees with such power and despite a free-kick, Ben’s assailant went unpunished, though this scribe suggests that Mr. Gleisner probably got his own back on more than one occasion. In fact they enjoyed such a mighty first half tussle filled with niggle, agro and argy-bargy, that there could be only one winner. It’s a testament to Ben that the prick failed to make an appearance in the second half.

But, to the match commentary we turn. The embers were well and truly ablaze at about the 15 minute mark. After weathering 15 minutes of sustained pressure, though admittedly the Vallians were still to put a real shot on goal, the PS started to take control of proceedings. Gaps suddenly started to appear. Sam Gleisner, having shifted from right back to striker was immediately in action. A punt from Dom was kindly headed toward the Valley goal by a valley defender, right into the path of Sam. A rush blood saw a hastily taken shot, that slid past the right hand upright, but the tide had turned. Minutes later, Sam went from possible hero to automatic Dick of the Day. A perfectly weighted through ball by BC (I think) was chased down by Sam who beat the keeper in a one-on-one but when faced with the ultimately test of the open goal, was found sadly wanting. In fairness, the ball was on his wrong foot, but actually he could have walked the ball into the goal. Despite the miss, the PS could smell blood.

And for the next 20 minutes, the lads played like they had just passed the “every third day is the beer day” bill. The PS opened the scoring with one of the goals of the year. It was memorable not for its Michael Jackson flashiness but for its simplicity and because it was a product of some excellent build up work. A chase by Phil down into the left corner resulted in a corner kick. Phil put in the perfect cross, picked out the head of the imposing BC who thundered home his first of the season.

It had been a while since we had played good football. The self belief flooded back and the whole team lifted and blew the Sunshine away. Jules, a late arrival, came running on and with his first touch of the ball found a very determined Sam, who calmly controlled and crashed home a great finish. The midfield, which consisted at different times of BC, Jules, MattNich, Arnu, Phil, Donnie, Mortgage, Sam, Ben, Nick, AJ, Gimli, and Dan absolutely owned their opposite numbers. 50-50 ball was suddenly 80-20 to us, with fearless heading and competing for the ball. Credit to the Vallians, who had a quick and competitive midfield but lacked imagination and organisation.

The third goal about 10 minutes later, was another example of solid build up work. My memory sucks so I forget the build up details but BC got it about 12 yards out and hammered home a low shot that went underneath a keeper who should have done better. At three nil up the PS strangely took the foot off the throat and coasted through to half time feeling much better about the position they were in.

There were a couple of halftime diatribes about maintaining focus and making sure we didn’t concede any damn consolation goals. The MattNich favourite of nil-all was shouted repeatedly. We expected the Vallians to come out in the second half like a high profile homosexual, i.e. with conviction. They did not disappoint, and while the first half showed some the boundless attacking potential of the PS, the real credit must go to the various defenders, Jules, Arnu, Nick, Gimli, Ben, Dan, MattNich, Sam, Phil, Donnie, BC, AJ and Mortage, who rotated through the four defensive positions with remarkable fluidity, poise and success. The second half was largely a defensive arm wrestle, as the PS went to subcommittees and lost some shape. Ben was once again was the target of the now very desperate Sunshine, coping a near Ben-Thatcher-esque elbow to the head. A cowardly attempt to upset the PS midfielder failed to provoke the desired violent reaction.

On attack the PS were foiled by some dubious offside calls and a clueless ref, but probably didn’t really deserve any second half goals. So when the fourth goal was awarded, on the stroke of fulltime it was considered a very luck bonus. A goal mouth melee for a bobbling ball that the keeper simply could not get his hands on was finally headed into the goal by an ever present BC for a well deserved hat-trick.

A welcome back to utility Andrew ‘AJ’ Johnson, who made his 2007 season debut. A strong performance first up he showed pace and determination that proved inspirational to the team, reflected by the excellent result.

We have a double header this Queen’s birthday weekend against Wests on Saturday and Uni Lateral on Monday. We need a couple of wins to solidify our top of the table position.

STARTING XI: vs Stokes Valley Sunshine 26/05/07
Dom
Sam	Gimli	Mortgage
	Ben
Nick	BC	MattNich
	Phil
	Arnu	Aj
SUBS
	Jules
	Donnie
	Dan
GOALS
	1st Half	2nd Half
	BC 18’	BC 90’
	Sam 25’
	BC 35’

BNU Public Service Golden Boot
Ben	7
Phil	7
Jarrod	5
Jules	3
Donnie	3
BC	3
Arnu	1
Fynny	1
Gimli	1
Sam	1

BNU Public Servant of the Day (SOD)
vs Karori Swifts (6-1)	Phil
vs Island Bay Piglets (8-0)	Phil
vs Stokes Valley Destroyers (9-0)	Ben
vs Wainuiomata (0-0)	Gimli
vs BNU Pints (4-1)	Donnie
vs Uni Bombers (1-1)	Hang thy head in shame
vs Stokes Valley Sunshine (4-0)	BC

BNU Public Dick of the Day
vs Karori Swifts (6-1)	Dom (conceding the goal)
vs Island Bay Piglets (8-0)	?
vs Stokes Valley Destroyers (9-0)	?
vs Wainuiomata (0-0)	MattNich (multiple vehicular indiscretions)
vs BNU Pints (4-1)	MattNich (I thought you said 2:30)
vs Uni Bombers (1-1)	Dan (Own goal)
vs Stokes Valley Sunshine (4-0)	Sam (Blew an open one)

CAPITAL 13: Results 26/05/07
Island Bay Piglets	6	Karori Swifts	4
SV Destroyers	0	Uni Lateral	1
Wainuiomata	3	Porirua City Mana	2
BNU Pints	4	Upper Hutt Slayers	2
SV Sunshine	0	BNU PS	4
Western Suburbs	2	Porirua City	1
Petone Martians	2	Uni Bombers	1

CAPITAL 13:	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
BNU PS	7	5	2	0	32	3	+29	17
Wainuiomata	7	4	3	0	16	10	+6	15
SV Sunshine	7	4	1	2	24	17	+7	13
Uni Lateral	7	4	1	2	20	14	+6	13
BNU Pints	7	4	0	3	19	16	+3	12
Island Bay Piglets	7	4	0	3	28	29	-1	12
Petone Martians	7	3	2	2	19	19	0	11
Porirua City	7	3	1	3	15	12	+3	10
Western Suburbs	7	3	0	4	14	21	-7	9
Karori Swifts	7	2	2	3	24	19	+5	8
Uni Bombers	7	2	2	3	10	16	-6	8
SV Destroyers	7	2	0	5	19	28	-9	6
Upper Hutt Slayers	7	1	1	5	22	31	-9	4
Porirua City Mana	7	0	1	6	16	40	-24	1

Phil’s foot. Kudos for playing on man. Bit stupid but Kudos none the less.