Apologies

Sorry people, been visiting the whanau up north.

off the Man Utd online link.

United seem to be cruising on the Asian adventure.

Nani impressed the boss, though I wonder why you would want 2 Ronaldo types.

Hargreaves is itching to go.

and the ongoing Tevez saga ......

Local front, TAKAPUNA this coming weekend, BE THERE.

Cancelled

The football game against North Shore has been cancelled.

See you all at TAKAPUNA on the 5th of August.

Man Utd NZ in the valley

The clouds parted and blue sky prevailed in the beautiful Huapai valley, as the Manchester United NZ supporters club football team did battle with Norwest.

A great game, that we dominated for 70 minutes after an early Wesley penalty, that only just got away from us because of a lack of subs. Norwest had no answer to the brick wall defence of Ken, Warrington, a Brazilian lad, young guy Will and of course Jim in goal. With a strong backline, the midfield of Marc, Cardiff, Gareth and Simon had plenty of time to feed the ebullient Wes and Jeff from Norwest up front. The Norwest team seem to be sliding back into their old ways and Wes as usual copped most of it, but when they tackled him in the box, he carefully put the penalty away and increased his goal total, as he chases Peter Burnand on the Man Utd NZ goalscorers list.

Simon had another great game (his third in a row) and is fast proving to be the winger we need, combining again well with Wesley and was unlucky not to finish with a couple of goals. Jeff was a bit slow up front (he plays on Saturdays) and we missed the pace of Lee or In Taek, but the whole side performed extraordinary well and best of all, listened to the calls of team mates. Jim once more played a leading role in our team performance and it was sad to hear we may lose him after this season owing to a move up to Trevors place, (Whangarei).
The two late goals Norwest got were mainly down to player fatigue, though both were crackers and they had another couple of headers smash off the cross-bar. So while it was hard going down, the lads played wonderfully and didn't see it as a failure.

Huapai this weekend

Manchester United NZ play Norwest at Huapai this Sunday (22nd) at 2 pm.

2007 AGM - Change of date

PLEASE NOTE:

This year's AGM will be held on Sunday 19th August, not 12th August as advertised in this month's magazine. Venue as usual - Naval Base, Devonport from 12pm onwards.

For the football team, we will still be playing Ranui on this day but kick off has been changed to 11am for live..... sorry, so we can get to Devonport in time for the meeting (before all the food's gone!)

Please make a note of this change of date and forward any nominations for positions on the new committee to Woody as soon as possible.

at Taharoto Road

A strong debut from young Anthony

a superb second up effort from Simon

the relentless encouragement from Jan in goal

the silky touch of In Taek

the dynamite running, tackling and passing of Jon

the control of Steve Taylor

the solid tackling and hustle of our Gareth

the brick wall defence of Steve Mellor, Barney, Mark Finnegan, Ken, Anthony

the great support of Pip, Carrie, Anamaya, Katrina, Woody, Katie, Steve Edwards, Cardiff, Macca.

Mud in your eye

The weather was clear but definitely crisp as the Manchester United NZ Sunday football team arrived at Waikaraka Park to play the blues of Onehunga.
A quite respectable side turned up, with Jim, Marc, Ken, Colchester Steve, Warrington Steve, Kens mate Barney, Rob, Wesley, Ian, Gareth, Colchester Andy and Simon, Steve Edwards boy. Unfortunately the pitch was shocking and any hope of playing quality football was quickly forgotten. This was a real disappointment as we also had a large fan base attending with Carrie, Anamaya, Katrina, Pip, Andys missus, Lydia, Manaia, Steve Edwards and a few more.
This was our first run since hammering the blues a month before and some of us were feeling it. The guys tried their best, but we couldn’t put the ball into the net, with Rob probably having the two best chances, though Wes also powered a couple of blasters from outside the box. In such conditions the ball feels like concrete and stops dead when passed along the ground, making good football very hard.
Simon had an outstanding game, linking well with Wes and we look forward to seeing more of the Stevie Edwards boys and hopefully the young Wood boys in the future. Jim put in another tremendous effort in goal and Ken, Warrington and Andy defended like tigers and Steve T and Gareth vainly tried to pull us thru, but in the end the pitch won and the blues got their revenge from the last game.

Photos coming ....

Farewell

Plans to present Mike with a commemorative Supporters Club shirt after his last game at Takapuna on Sunday were sadly dashed by the weather when the game was postponed.

However, Ken Manager did present the shirt to Mike when a few of us met up in the Northcote Tavern on Sunday afternoon for one last drink with Mike & Dani.

All The Best Guys