Birkenhead Outmuscle Eastern Suburbs

This is my second and the last of the football adventures in my New Zealand trip. This time around I had made the journey north of the city centre and watched Birkenhead United host Eastern Suburbs in another match in the Northern Premier League which will determine the four participants for the national league. Birkenhead's ground is in an open park much like Auckland City, but with more playing fields as there were reserves and masters matches being played while the premier league side played at the main ground. Shepherds Park is in the quaint, quiet and idyllic Northshore neighbourhood of Auckland that has a beach to the north, making it another unique football venue. To get there is much easier by car, however, I did not have one so I caught the ferry from the Downtown ferry terminal adjacent to the Britomart station in central Auckland. The journey is very picturesque, especially as you go under the Auckland Harbour Bridge and you motor away towards Birkenhead and you see the city skyline trail off into the distance in the ferry's wake.

 

Initially I did not know which football pitch was hosting the premier league match, but the flags around the ground was a dead giveaway and the main pavilion and clubrooms were there also. The venue is very much similar to Auckland City, though slightly better I would think, but somewhat on par with lower tiered state league or NPLWA sides that I have been to over the years, especially during the lifetime of the Punctual Football Fan.

Birkenhead playing in red and white vertical stripes hosted Eastern Suburbs, which it must be me though every time I see a team called "Eastern Suburbs" they are almost certainly kitted out in black and white. Just a strange observation with no hard numerical evidence, just my personal observation obviously. Anyway, back to the article! Eastern Suburbs were in all black with white but yellow trim and unlike last week, these two teams were in the top 6 and were vying to push further up the table and hopefully to qualify for the national league. It was a very competitive match with both teams pushing and jostling for supremacy with many chances from both sides over the match.

With that said, it was however, Birkenhead that had maintained the stronger hand and would be too strong in the 20th minute with a lapse in concentration from Easts, which had cost them a turnover and resulted in the goal being scored by the hosts. The small crowd went 'birko' and the pun was very much intended here! Towards the end of the first half Easts had rebounded from the shock and did pose serious threats to the Birkenhead defence, but was all fruitless. It was 1-0 and half time to the hosts.

There was a small grandstand along the wing that was cut into the sloped embankment of the ground and the match was played under rather warm and sunny Auckland wintery conditions that did make it a challenge to watch the game from as the angle of the winter sun was making it hard to watch and take photos of the game. But it was a really lovely day and glad that it was not a day that was dark, gloomy, windy, freezing, wet and with rain.

The second half was very much like the first with both sides pushing each other and probing for a goal. Easts were really trying to find the equaliser and there were many moments where I thought that they had found the breakthrough, only to be denied by some great Birkenhead keeping and defending. To alleviate the pressure, they would usually just hoof it out to clear it upfield. A simple yet effective strategy over this match. While it was a tighter and more hard fought match in the second half, it was the hosts who had drew second blood and scored in the 77th minute to double their lead and to hold off the numerous counters and probes into their defence. Eastern Suburbs had been applying the pressure on the hosts all game and although on the two occasions they had allowed Birkenhead to score and hold a hefty 2-0 advantage, they did manage to draw one back and it did look like that the visitors could pose a serious threat and press on for an equaliser. This was not to happen and the match ended in favour of Birkenhead 2-1 to keep them in the hunt for qualification for the national league spot for later this season.

As for the food, what a contrast from Auckland City. Birkenhead had a kitchen at the ready and there was a nice variety of food to choose from. I chose loaded fries with sweet chili sauce, bacon and cheese. It was for 9 dollars and I had it with a Birkenhead Ale and that was 5 dollars. Afterwards I had a can of L&P and a can of coke for 2 dollars each. But the drink and food were all reasonably priced and plenty on offer too. Though one thing I have noticed and it must be an Auckland football thing is that the interior of the clubrooms are festooned with flags, scarves and knick-knacks from all around the world and just look cluttered, kitsch and tacky.

The experience at Shepherds Park was a refreshing one compared to last week and what they had on offer was very much akin to amateur football back in Perth as well as the lower tiered NPLWA sides. But despite that lower quality of football it was an enjoyable day that was hard fought between both sides and amongst a side that put on something for the fans and ones who have curiously ventured to watch them. If you are ever in Beach Haven and a game is on here, I suggest you take some time out of your Saturday and enjoy.

 

 

Auckland City Too Good For West Coast

Ventured across the ditch as they say in New Zealand as travelling around the state, country and beyond is severely restricted due to the Wuhan Virus causing havoc upon state and federal government law and decision makers making it difficult for the average Joe who just wants to get back to normal. So I must confess that I was very lucky and fortunate to be able to travel to Auckland and beat any drama and issues that had arisen in Melbourne just prior to my arrival into New Zealand.

So with that part out of the way I missed out on the previous week of football due to the difficulties of travel around this fine city of New Zealand without a car and being at the mercy to public transportation. The venues are spread out and getting there via train and bus or just bus does take some getting used to. So this time round I was not going to miss out and I definitely wanted to see the best club in New Zealand and the entire Oceanian Football Federation, having won the O-League a record 9 times and finishing third in the 2014 FIFA Club World Championship.

Auckland City share a club arrangement with Central United and replaced them for the this season's northern league. The top 4 of this competition go through to participate in the national league which replaces the football championship. I am not sure what Central United will be doing, nor am I fully aware of the true history of Auckland City and their link with Central United, but from what I saw in the clubrooms and the management, it looks to be that Central United are the parent club and Auckland is effectively the franchise that took part in the football championship that started in 2004 and subsequently folded in 2020.

Now with that lengthy blurb out of the way let us talk about the game and what I encountered as part and point of this blog shall we? So I made my way down to Kiwitea Street, or Fryburg Field as it is called via a bit of a lengthy walk after my train took me to Kingsland which is the stop for Eden Park. The vibe and atmosphere around Auckland is very much like Sydney and the Sydney suburbs and I did feel like I was walking towards a NSW NPL match, only with public transportation not matching that of Sydney's.

I timed it so I got there about 15 minutes early as I thought it might be tricky to get a spot at the ground to watch the game and that there might be a big crowd to see the most powerful and successful club in Auckland, New Zealand and Oceanian history. I was very far from that estimation and there were two extremely tiny stands that would make even lower tiered WA NPL sides smirk and chuckle as they would hold more than these two 'stands'. Now to Auckland's defence, the park is a public and open park like Western Knights. So much like Nash Field, you are allowed to freely walk into the ground.

I thought I would head to the clubrooms, which are very small and are much like a small suburban turf cricket club's ground clubrooms, or like the Sunday amateur teams back in Perth. However, with that said, even subbie turf and Sunday amateur football teams have better clubrooms than this with far more people in attendance. There was only drink available at the bar and there was no food on offer, besides potato chips in their packets. They had the usual cool drinks on offer for only 2 dollars and beer were 6 dollars. They had Stella, Steinlager and some craft beers from the area, all of these were 6 dollars. So the price of drinks were very good, shame that there was no food available.

Now I had a drink of coke, steinlager and L&P and walked to the western stand which is perched upon a hill like a World War One trench with the wooden planks for you to sit and to watch from an elevated position. The view was not bad and was a good spot. Auckland City were never out of control of the match and they were very comfortable throughout the first half pushing, pressing and huffing and puffing at the West Coast defence with no reward. They honestly should have been three goals up at this point in the match. They did score in the first half after West Coast were just run ragged and off their feet and I amusingly missed the goal as I turned away to have a sip of my drink! It finished at the break 1-0 for Auckland.

So at half time I started to notice that there were children, not many mind you as I think there was only about 500 people at this game, with buckets of hot chips. So I went back to the clubrooms to investigate and noticed that there was now a kitchen that had opened up and they were serving small buckets of chips with a very liberal serving of tomato sauce for only 3 dollars. I had a serve and they weren't bad, just I don't have sauce with my chips, let alone tomato sauce and I did not care for that too much. But the only other offering the kitchen had were sausages in bread with sauce for also 3 dollars. So I had two of those as I deliberately not had any food before the game as I was anticipating a Croatian influenced delight based on the history of Central United's rich Croatian immigrant heritage.

Not to be sadly but at least they had something on offer, but it really was not what I was expecting, nor was it on par with what I have been used to with WA NPL and even NPL matches over east in Australia. So I thought that this would have to be a write off and I will just have to take another can of L&P and a beer with me to watch the second half. Hopefully the efforts on the park would improve?

No, it was the same, very scrappy match where Auckland really had the skills, talent and tactics to take chances and extend their already established lead. It was a very laborious match and it was certainly not pretty to watch either as the afternoon light was dropping fast and the winter's evening chilly winds were starting to sweep in from the city's natural harbours from the west and north. There were a few moments where West Coast had the hosts panicking, but they were never a serious threat and they blasted a few shots away but nothing that was anything to be alarmed over.

Auckland towards the end of the second half did open their account for the second half and the game would end 2-0 for the 9 time Oceanian continental champions. This win had cemented their spot to be crowned as 2021 Northern League winners and the first team to qualify for the national championship to start in late August. 

This adventure to my first taste of local New Zealand and Auckland football was interesting, but I was expecting something along the lines of what I've seen in the NPL, but with more of a crowd and with more on offer with food. Just goes to show that the gulf in football in the country is still massive and there is still a lot of work that is to be done. Though it was nice to spend a few ours of my time to just sit and watch the game run its course and admire the game amongst the beautiful backdrop of Mount Eden and One Tree Hill in the background. Now that is a unique experience that is hard to find in football.