16 Dec. 2006 Woodpecker 4 – GroundHoppers 5

A depleted hoppers side ran out winners in this grudge match against a good Woodpecker side.

After starting the game with 10 men Hopper’s David Rose after declaring himself unfit to play through injury, decided to play through the pain barrier, to support the boys as they were struggling to field a team. The game started very brightly as the two teams looked to get an early goal. A miscommunication in the Hoppers defence let Woodpecker get a low cross into the box, which beat defenders and goal keeper and was easily slotted home.

Hoppers came back with an instant reply through Perry Burgess’ instinctive finish, but this didn’t last long when Woodpecker pounced on a great save from stand in goalkeeper “Mule van der sar - kezman – rooy” and followed it in easily.

Woodpecker started to get on top in this game for long spells not helped with the injury to midfielder Vince Kenneth reducing Hoppers back down to 10 players for the remaining hour.

Hoppers heads dropped as a careless back-pass was seized upon putting the Woodpecker even further ahead on 3-1.

The second half started slowly Woodpecker being forced to take long shots, where as Hoppers were trying to carve out chances but to no avail. It took until 15 mins into the second half for the score line to change, Andrew Huggins Cross-come-shot looped over the keepers head and into the side netting inside the goal. 3-2 game on.

Hoppers heads dropped once more as the eleven men of Woodpecker pushed on to kill the game off, which they did when a header was placed past the Hoppers goal keeper. This started some show boating from Woodpecker, which inspired Hoppers to battle harder and they were rewarded not long after when Dave Rose collected a ball in the six yard box and coolly slotted it home.

Stephen Wright was on hand to poke up a knock down from a corner with 10 minutes to play to levelled the game at 4-4 and set up a very tense ending. With only a few seconds to spare a long throw from Bejay Debolla was flicked on by Stephen Wright, David Rose timed his run into the box perfectly to meet the ball and drive it home at the near post. The goal caused pandemonium amongst the Hoppers players who had been frustrated in a niggly game with a lot of banter. As Woodpecker restarted the game the final whistle was blown and Hoppers had come out with a hard fought, well earned and extremely important win just before the Christmas break. All credit to Woodpecker, who had nothing but respect for the hard work the ten man Hoppers team put in to gain this result.