Two late goals in each half saw Greyfriars Motel Greytown FC prove too strong for a resilient Tawa Reserves team at Redwood Park in Tawa over the weekend, giving the South Wairarapa side a great start to life in Capital Division Two.

Tawa had lead early after the Greytown defence failed to clear the ball properly, but the visitors grew into the game and began to run the show in the important midfield area, with captain Jarrod MacDonald and Harvey Parker the two key cogs who along with debutant Andres Gomez controlled the game.

Greytown’s first goal came from a beautiful defence piercing through ball from MacDonald for newcomer Brodie Palmer to run onto and knock past the keeper to level the scoring and not long after another MacDonald pass led to another debutant Jay Traill scoring his first senior goal and the visitors held the narrow advantage till the break.

Tawa came out all guns blazing to begin the second half, but Greytown held their ground and despite losing influential midfielder Harvey Parker to a head knock, the visitors again took the ascendency and once substitute Gareth Gwyther banged in a goal from the edge of the penalty area, the game was Greytown’s and MacDonald completed the scoring a few minutes before the end with a well taken penalty.

Coach Phil Keinzley was pleased with the result, but as it was only the first game of the season, says there is still plenty to work on, in addition to trying to add players to the already thin squad. Youngster Jay Traill was the outstanding player on the park for Keinzley who was delighted with the right winger’s work ethic and capping his performance with a goal.

Until he left the field, Parker was all over the place and worked well with skipper MacDonald, while debutants Joshua Saxton in defence and Brodie Palmer (twin brother of Landon) up front, both fitted in well along with Gomez. Saxton was particularly impressive in the middle of defence with Josh Thompson, while apart from one error, Goalkeeper Taylor Harvey made some important first half saves.

Greytown has their home opener this coming weekend with the visit of last year’s Division Three champion Upper Hutt City Reserves, who also began the season with a good win over Waterside-Karori.

Article added: Monday 08 April 2024