Riding a wave of support

Kaitaia Justa Plumber 2 FC Whangarei 2 (ht 0-2): Unable to lift itself off at the bottom of the Northland men's 1st division standings, the Kaitaia senior men's football team concluded its season in fitting fashion, riding a small but passionate wave of support to give the Northland men's 1st div title contenders more than they expected at Taipa on Saturday afternoon.

The home side began strongly but some apathetic defending saw the visitors scoring two first half goals with surprising ease (although there was some debate whether the second, a header, had come from an offside position). Kaitaia came out in the second half a different side, delivering its most fired up performance of the year.

Throughout its final 45 minutes, Kaitaia launched a blistering barrage at the visitors' goal, eventually sharing the points courtesy of two strikes from the young, talented Rungpao brothers, View nailing the first, Bic smacking home an equaliser from a goalmouth scramble.

The FC keeper had to make several fingertip saves at full stretch to keep his side in the match, while Kaitaia standouts included striker Ciaran Mannix, giving a fine account of himself out of his usual position as keeper, and teenage Dylan Roberts in goal.

Referee Jeff Kemp had his hands full trying to control proceedings relatively well, although it should be noted both sides often struggled to throw the ball in properly, which showed where the Northland 1st div game was really at.

Taken by surprise to find themselves on the backfoot against the bottom team giving their 1st div title hopes a significant dent, some FC players began disputing some of Kemp's calls and he was left with little choice but to issue one particularly outspoken FC player with a red card, the second yellow of the day, after the final whistle.

The homeside players couldn't have cared less, having left everything on Taipa's well-drained pitch in a roller coaster match. At the aftermatch, Kaitaia coach Dave Armistead conceded the team had struggled during the second part of the season.

He admitted the final placing could be regarded as a disappointment, sitting just below Far North stablemates Kerikeri at the bottom of the standings, and a complete reversal of the grading round which Kerikeri won while Kaitaia were runners up.

Part of the cause came from Kerikeri securing the domestic prem div title relatively early on in the season, thus allowing various other clubs to release prem div players to stack their 1st div sides.

Hardly sporting, Armistead wondered what those dedicated 1st div regulars thought about being 'stood up' after playing all season.

However, Armistead said it had been a successful year on so many fronts, not least in bringing through so many young players with Kaitaia featuring eight players aged between 14-18.

"The effort, dedication and resilience of our young team has been great to see and even better to be involved in, especially considering the loss of so many senior players at the tail end of last season. The foundations have been laid for what will surely be further growth and improvement next season."

So Kaitaia senior football circa 2013 appears to be in rude health.

Along with the pool of emerging youth talent, there's some exciting new imports/international transfers in the process of being confirmed, the potential to field a Taipa-based team in the over 35 competition, and a steadily growing support faction.

Following the end-of-year prizegiving later this month, the senior boys will turn their attentions to once again running this year's NAKFA social 7-aside summer soccer tournament. Interest for this was starting to mount with several teams having registered expressions of interest.

Other results of Far North-relevance played in Northland senior men's and women's football features inside.