YoungHeart Manawatu

Canterbury United

0

4

Russell KAMO  3'
George SLEFENDORFAS 5', 30'
Aaron CLAPHAM-pen 51

by Kelvin Wescombe at Memorial Park
asbpremiership.co.nz

Canterbury United steamrolled their YoungHeart Manawatu hosts 4-0 in their ASB Premiership opener at Memorial Park, Palmerston North on Sunday.

Continuing their winning form over Manawatu from last season, the visitors grabbed hold of the match early on with two goals in a devastating five minute opening spell.

It was a one-sided first half with Canterbury enjoying the majority of possession. They were hungry and showed a frenetic pace that Manawatu at times struggled to keep up with.  From the opening whistle Canterbury enjoyed free running on the right hand side, and the opening move was finished stronglyby Russell Kamo in what will easily be one of the fastest goals to be scored in the season.

A relentless Canterbury had their tails up and ended up with more free pasture on the right hand side, this time having George Slefendorfas finish for an unbelievable 2-0 lead after only five minutes.

Manawatu coach Stu Jacobs said these opening five minutes killed YoungHeart’s chances.

“It wasn’t a good start to the game for us, which really sums it all up I think” said Jacobs. “Being two nil down after five minutes really puts you right in the backseat, on the backfoot.

“Once that happens you lose confidence, players get a bit straggly and that’s what happened really.”

Jacobs didn’t feel like his side weren’t prepared, but were punished for a couple off ill-timed mistakes. 

 “The boys were dead keen before the game, we just made two passing errors at the start and got punished”.

For Canterbury it was a strategic move to start hard and fast, a strategy that paid dividends.

“We wanted to squeeze from the kick off” said Canterbury coach Keith Braithwaite. “The idea was to push and press them and it paid dividends for us. To be a goal up after one minute then two goals after five, it’s a dream start to the season isn’t it?”

Canterbury never looked like slowing down, but did feel some of Manawatu’s attack in patches.

“They’re a very good side – we came up here last season and we were three nil up at halftime and we ended up winning that three to two” said Braithwaite.

“We didn’t want to make the same mistake again as we knew they’d throw everything at us”. Braithwaite felt that his side wasn’t fit enough, which showed in their play in the second half.

YoungHeart Manawatu can take positives from this. Their second half performance was much stronger than the first. A feat magnified by the fact that they were playing with only ten men for forty of those minutes after a handball offence in the goal box from Pablo Moya saw him sent off.

Jacobs feels his side has some improvement to make but all is not lost this early in the season.  “We have a wee bit of work to do, but that’s the challenge I guess. There some positives we can take out of this game but it’s a matter of taking them and digesting it towards improvement the next match.”

YoungHeart Manawatu

V

Canterbury United

1. Rhyss KEANE (gk)

22. Adam HIGHFIELD (gk)

3. Josh CHETTLEBURGH

3. Mark JOHNSON

4. Jamie O'CONNOR

5. Tom SCHWARZ

5. Allan KEDDIE (RANDE 46')

7. Darren WHITE

6. Matt KENNEDY

8. Aaron CLAPHAM

8. Nathan COOKSLEY

9. George SLEFENDORFAS  (BARTON 66')

11. Cory CHETTLEBURGH (c)

10. Russell KAMO 

12. Jimmy HAIDAKIS

11. Matt THOMAS (YAMAMOTO 73')

14. Pablo MOYA

15. Julyan COLLETT

16. Michael FRASER (MOSQUERA 60')

16. Joe MURRAY (SMITH 55')

25. Jono STEELE  (MARTENS 69')

17. Cole PEVERLEY

Substitutes

Substitutes

2. Nobu ISHI

1. Tom BATTY (rgk)

17. Jordan MARTENS (on 69')

12. Andrew BARTON (on 66')

19. Matt BORREN (rgk)

14. Josh SMITH (on 55')

20. Joachim RANDE (on 46')

20. Ken YAMAMOTO (on 73')

21. Tomas MOSQUERA (on 60')

21. Te Atawhai HUDSON-WIHONGI

=goal

=yellow card

=2 yellow cards

= red card