TEAM WELLINGTON 4 WELLINGTON PHOENIX RESERVES 1
ISPS Handa Premiership
Sunday 7th January 2018
Dave Farrington Park, Att 300 or so
The town was abuzz, everyone was talking about it, down on the waterfront there was a booth that gave you the chance to buy the tickets from the season ticket holders that couldn't make it, although the queue was more like a rugby scrum so only the strongest managed to secure their tickets this way. People were pouring out of the bars and cafes and heading to the ground. There were official program sellers, then there were unofficial versions, knocked up and sold by opportunistic fans, the ones that couldn't afford the bigger merchandise stalls with scarfs, flags and badges. After battling past them, the touts then accosted you, wanting to sell you a ticket or buy any spares. Then you were in the ground, a strange Dr Who Tardis type feeling as you go through the gate and discover it's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. Of course we can only dream that this happened in the Welclasico in the suburb of Miramar, but it happened in the El Clasico when I went to see Barcelona play Real Madrid at the Nou Camp in November 2004
Then, I had scored a ticket of some English lads, for the pricely sum of 200 euros (about $NZD 480 at the time) - the most I've ever paid to watch a game of football! For Welclasico I got in for free as I have a media pass (it would have cost me $10 if I didn't). The crowd in the Nou Camp was 98 000, the crowd at DaveyF was about 300 (which was actually a good crowd for there)
In 2004 I was watching the likes of Casillas, Roberto Carlos, Puyol, Luis Figo, Iniesta, Ronaldo (the original one), Ronaldinho, Beckham, Larrson, Zidane, Eto'o, Raul & Xavi.
in 2018 it was the likes of er........ Basalaj, Wood, Barcia, Sutton, Bevin, McGarry, Kayara, Cacace and Fenton.
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| Fenton, Iniesta, Sutton, Figo, Kayara, Ronaldinho The JourneyFan & Others |
On that day in 2004 the score was 3-0 to Barcelona, in 2018 Team Wellington won 4-1 - so both games had a three goal margin (I knew if I kept going I'd eventually find a stat that made these games look similar!)
Both Team Wellington and Wellington Phoenix have been promoting these derby games as Welclasico, A nice play on El Clasico, and fair play to them it's great they are trying to build a bit of feeling and atmosphere around these games. It is no easy task when this is probably one of the weirdest derby rivalries in the world - I mean everyone supports both teams!!!!
This was the eighth Welclasico and Team Wellington defiantly have the upper hand having won six of the previous encounters and were sitting top of the league going into this game. The Wellington Phoenix Reserves meanwhile showed the problem of having a reserve team in the league at this level, with the Bignix having three games in a week, the usual core of the reserve team including the likes of Sapreet Singh, Logan Rogerson, Jacob Lowry were rested and a pretty young academy side played. While its the rules and has been accepted by the other nine teams in the league, you just know that next weeks game against Hawkes Bay United will see the Weenix field a stronger team.
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| Louis Fenton (TW) is felled by a Weenix player The JourneyFan |
On seeing the teams warming up it was a reasonably safe call to say the game was going to be Team Wellington's and it was, it took them just 14 minutes to go 2-0 up. The first an Andy Bevin header from a lovely Louis Fenton cross, for the second Jack-Henry Sinclair, found himself on the edge of the penalty area with the ball at his feet and no defenders deeming him worthy to challenge, so he turned and slotted it in to the bottom corner. It was starting to look like one of those days when Team Wellington would go on a scoring rampage, but the Weenix fought back and were rewarded in the 32nd minute when the impressive Liam Wood headed in an Ollie Whyte corner. This just seemed to annoy Team Wellington who restored their two goal cushion three minutes later when the hard working Roy Kayara found Nati Hailemariam who fired in a shot that Weenix keeper, Ollie Sail, described as "such a poxy goal to concede". Just before half time the game was effectively over when a Joel Stevens shot hit a defender and Louis Fenton was on hand to tap it in to make it 4-1.
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| Nati Hailemariam and Scott Hillar do a dance to celebrate Nati's goal The JourneyFan |
The second half was a strangely similar to the Phoenix's (both bignix & weenix) season so far, very occasional bright spots, but generally pretty mediocre. It was telling that the bright spots came from Team Wellington, for whom two of their better players were Louis Fenton and Jack-Henry Sinclair, both ex Phoenix players!
I did take some photos but I was having as good a day with my camera as the Weenix were with their defence so instead check out photos from
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