2023 SQUAD:

2023 RESULTS:

R1:     1/4      -  v Seatoun                              Win:   5-3          Goalscorers:   Bevan Smith x3; Kristen Ellis; Stu Coats

R2:    22/4   -  v UHFC Saints                      Win:   4-2          Goalscorers:   Reece Brooks; Michael Leach; Stu Coats; Bevan Smith

R3:    29/3   -  v Porirua City Co-Op          Loss:   1-5           Goalscorers:   Stu Coats

R4:    6/5     -  v UHFC Marauders             Draw: 3-3          ​​​​​​​Goalscorers:   Bevan Smith x3

R5:    13/5    -  v UHFC RJs                           Draw: 4-4         ​​​​​​​Goalscorers:   Bevan Smith x3; Mark Bruce

R6:    20/5   -  v Naenae Dragons             Loss:   0-3          GAME DEFAULTED

R7:    27/5   - v NW Fiji                                 Win:   7-5           Goalscorers:  Michael Leach x 3: Stu Coats x2; Bevan Smith; Mark Bruce 

R8:    3/6     - v Vic Uni Stallions                Draw: 4-4          Goalscorers:  James Keegan; Bevan Smith x2; Ben Williams 

R9:    10/6   - v UHCF RJs                             Loss:  0-3          GAME DEFAULTED

R10:   17/6   - v IBU Solid Gold                    Draw: 6-6         Goalscorers:  Bevan Smith x4, Kristen Ellis; Ben Williams

R11:   24/6  - v Seatoun                                 Loss:  2-8          Goalscorers:  Stu Coats; Serge Kramer

R12:  1/7     - v Vic Uni Stallions                   Loss:  3-5          Goalscorers:  Bevan Smith; Ben Williams; Luke

R13:  15/7   - v IBU Solid Gold                      Loss:  2-6          ​​​​​​​Goalscorers:  Reece Brooks; Michael Leach

R14:  22/7  - v UHFC RJs                              Loss:  1-3           Goalscorers:  Bevan Smith

R15:  29/7  - v Naenae Dragons                 Loss:  2-1           Goalscorers:  Jeff Liger 

R16:  5/8    - v Porirua City Co-Op             Draw: 2-2          Goalscorers:  Michael Leach; Bevan Smith

R17:  12/8   - v UHCF Marauders                Draw: 5-5          Goalscorers:  Bevan Smith; Jeremy Houltham; Ben Williams; Colin Gerrard x2

R18:  19/8   - v NW Fiji                                   Win:  18-0         Goalscorers:  Bevan Smith x5; Jeremy Houltham x3; Michael Leach x2; Reece Brooks x 2; Stu Coats; Jeff Liger; Andre Baldock; Mark Bruce; own goals x 2

​​​​​​​SEASON'S REPORTS

Since the last report it has been a tough few weeks for TFT Masters.

Week 3 saw a depleted squad head to Whitby to play Porirua Co-op. With the bare 11 players the TFTs needed to have a good start in order to get a result. Unfortunately they conceded in the first 5 minutes. Things went downhill from there, with some in-game injuries making it even harder.  A 5-1 loss.

The next week Upper Hutt Marauders, who at the time were the top of the table, visited. The TFTs were still light on players but put in a much better effort. 1-1 at half time, 3-3 at full time and, in the end, were unlucky not to win the game.

Week 5 saw the final leg of the first round Upper Hutt trilogy, with RJ’s coming to Wellington (yes, this means that TFT have to go to Upper Hutt three times in the second half of the season. A fun quirk of the draw.) The TFT’s had one of their stronger squads for the game and they needed every single one of those players as, again, there were a number of injuries during the game. The perils of aging. 1-1 at halftime, but halfway through the second half, Olympic were 2-4 down. They showed great heart and resilience to get it back to 4-4 at the end of the game.

So only two points from a possible 9 over the last three weeks.  Fortunately Masters 2 is a very tight competition this year so the TFTs are 5^th on goal difference, equal on points with the second placed side.  All to play for as the season progresses. Hats off to Bevan Smith, who’s scoring goals for fun. His current tally for the season is 10 from 4 games played – excellent work.

Olympic TFTs vs North Wellington Fiji, Saturday 27 May, Nairnville Park

Final score: TFT 7,  NW 5

TFT’s had another good win on Saturday in what turned out to be atrocious conditions.

At kick-off the weather was okay. The Nairnville pitch had a few rough areas in it, but overall not too bad. As the game progressed and the rain came in everything deteriorated, including the standard of defending (as indicated by the score).

NW Fiji started the game well, belying their position on the bottom of the league. TFT were reduced to a few counter-attacks. Eventually the pressure told; an excellent diagonal through-ball catching the TFT defence out. From this point on it was all Olympic. Bevan Smith found a niche down the left wing that proved to be unstoppable and he provided assists for the 4 TFT goals. The first was a low drilled shot from Mark Bruce, then Mike Leach completed a first half hat-trick with a well-taken near post finish, an excellent header and a striker’s poach from a goalmouth scramble. NW clawed one goal back just before half-time with strong header from a corner.

The weather had started to pack up and the game lost structure in the second half. Olympic had the better of the play but conceded a counter-attack goal. TFT should probably have scored more, but it wasn’t until Stuart Coats struck a couple from long range that they were able to turn their dominance into a convincing scoreline. NW scored from a contentious penalty, Bevan Smith got the goal that his overall play deserved, and then NW got a cheap goal right at the end to make the final score 7-5.

Masters 2 is proving a tight competition this year, so it was good to get the full three points.

It is proving to be a tough season for the TFT’s Masters team. So many injuries! This means that there have been a couple of defaults recently. This isn’t ideal, but we console ourselves with the fact that without losing those points we’d be second in the league. Don’t burst our bubble by saying we’d have to have won both those games….

When we do play, we continue our quest to be the most exciting team in Capital Football. Our last five results are a 3-3 draw, a 4-4 draw, a 7-5 win, another 4-4 draw, and then, in our most recent outing, a 6-6 draw. So come and watch us play if you want a high-scoring contest. Our thinly-stretched squad has meant that we struggle to close out games. This has led to some nail-biting entertainment, with plenty of tension on both sides.

Bevan Smith continues to score goals for fun. His tally currently stands at 17 goals for the season. There have been some outstanding contributions throughout the team, but a special shout out to Reece Brooks who has picked up the dreaded utility tag but continues to play outstanding football in whatever position he is asked to play.

Masters 2 is now well into the second half of the season. It is still an incredibly close league, which makes every game feel important. There’s no team that we’ve played that we don’t feel we can beat, so a big second half could be on the cards. If only we could all stay fit……

It's been another couple of weeks for the TFTs.  The injuries continue to mount and most weeks are a struggle to get 11 fit players on the pitch.  This hasn't been helped by the fact of playing two of the top teams in the league in these fixtures.

The match against Seatoun started well.  Olympic only had 9 players, but Seatoun were generous enough to lend us a player so we atleast had 10.  A fantastic effort in the first half saw ithe team go into the break 0-0.  The first 10 minutes of the second half saw Olympic saw two excellent goals and for a shining second it looked very much like the upset was on.  Seatoun countered with two excellent goals of their own and then the extra player advantage started to tell.  In the end it got ugly for the TFTs, losing 8-2.  A few cheap goals were conceded in the last 10 minutes, purely due to fatigue.

The next week Victoria University Stallions were the opposition.  Olympic managed to get a full team on the park at the start of this one, and even had a couple of subs, but some early injuries meant that it was again an uphill struggle.  This was a much closer match, with excellent football from both teams.  The TFTs were down 4-1 at one point but dragged it back to 5-3 by the end of play due to some hard work across the entire pitch.

This report's special shout-out goes to our keeper, James, who has had to face down at times rapant opposition players.  While there have been a few goals conceded, the scorelines would be much worse without his sterling efforts.

The TFTs hope to welcome back a few of the walking wounded into their team to close out the season.  The top half of the table is still in reach!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: it has been a tough couple of weeks for the TFTs in Masters 2. Numbers continue to be a struggle. While we have managed to field teams for the games we have been a bare 11, which means we struggle at the back end of matches as we tire.

In week 13 we played Island Bay Solid Gold.  We had an exciting 4-4 draw with this team earlier in the season but we were thoroughly outplayed on this occasion. Unfortunately we were sloppy in possession, which meant that we were often overwhelmed on defence.  Add in a couple of errors from our stand-in goalkeeper (as this was me, I am allowed to denigrate my own efforts) and the conclusion was a 6-2 loss. Goals to Reece Brooks and Mike Leach.

Thankfully a much better effort in week 14 at Maidstone Park against the Upper Hutt Saints. Much better football played. We were unlucky on a few occasions, both in attack and defence, leading to a 3-1 loss.  Bevan Smith continued his goalscoring feats by getting our only goal.  One of those games where we look back and say “if only.” 

Unfortunately this result has put us into a relegation dogfight. TFT’s are currently 5 points clear of the drop zone with 4 matches to play, so not desperate straits just yet. We continue to welcome players back from injury.  By the last game of the season we may have a complete squad. Onwards and upwards!

You don't have to tell me the weather has turned - the rain has come and the fields have turned into mud.  Unfortunately this has coincided with a couple of games that the TFT's have been drawn to play on grass rather than turf.

In week 15 we travelled to Naenae to be greeted by a swamp.  Patches of standing water, ankle-deep slurry, not conditions conducive to playing quality football.  And so it proved.   Naenae have had a good season and are one of the more physical teams in the gade.  TFT's managed to hold their own in this regard.  Clear cut chances were few and far between and the conditions meant that there was a constant element of chance in the game.  It's telling that all the goals were scored in early in the game when the pitch was still slightly playable.  Jeff Liger opened his account for the season with a fantastic long range effort but it wasn't enough as our 2-1 half-time deficit couldn't be overturned.

Week 16 the TFT's were back at home on Wakefield Park, but on pitch 4 rather than one of the lovely new turf ptiches.  Our opponents were Porirua Co-Op who has soundly beaten us earlier in the season.  Again, there was an element of chance to play as the pitch contained a few uneven surprises.  TFT's played into the wind in the first half and did fantastically well to go into the break 2-2.  In fact, we should probably have been ahead at half-time as we created a few more good chances.  Mike Leach and Bevan Smith scored our goals - for Bevan, his 20th of the season.  Olympic didn't adjust to having the wind in the 2nd half and we were outplayed but hung on grimly for the draw.

The point was a welcome for our fight to avoid relegation.  TFT are now 6 points clear at the bottom two, although Saints have a game in hand.  One more win and we can put the cue in the rack for the year, safe in the knowledge that we'll be back, bigger and better, in Masters 2 next season     

BEVAN LEADS THE WAY...

Still loving the beautiful game.....