Wind, rain and thunder, just another day in the valley

Coming up against the league leaders of Upper Hutt in this afternoons game at Richard Prouse Park was never going to be easy and the visitors really showed their class and why they are top of the pile in some atrocious conditions today.

Our local hero Ralph Chenery made an appearance in goal alongside striker Mark Manzone, who was making his 200th appearance for the club today, but was helpless to deny the visitors taking an early lead with a well taken goal from their striker.  It almost got a lot worse soon after when Upper Hutt were awarded a penalty but with some distraction from the home support and some fancy footwork from Ralph in the goal the penalty was missed.

The second duly arrived for Upper Hutt but this sparked Wainui into gear and they managed to hit the crossbar twice just before halftime.  The visitors then managed to soak up some early second half pressure from Wainui before catching them twice on the counter to kill off the game as a contest.  A fifth and sixth goal followed but Wainui never gave up the chase and finally just before full time Callum Patterson nicked one past the keeper.  This brought a huge cheer from the home support who had gathered against the clubroom wall for some shelter from the driving rain that showed up from time to time.

Back in the clubroom the 'apres' match speeches from both coaches as always were good value and Joel Evans landed the bottle of champagne for player of the day.  It was a well earned reward for a hard days work from Joel even though he ended up on the losing side.  More great scenes in the clubroom followed as Mark Manzone was presented with his club blazer to commemorate his 200 first team appearances and the 100 appearance club guys received their newly designed club ties.  All that was missing from today really was the result against Upper Hutt.