Melville will face Tauranga City (formerly Tauranga City United, though Tauranga City before that) at 2pm on Saturday March 11 at Gower Park as their pre-season picks up steam following a 1-1 home draw with Eastern Suburbs.
Feature of the Suburbs draw was Jerson Lagos (pictured above) netting a worldy in the first half. He is shaping as Melville sharpest attacking weapon this season and this was Jerson at his best as he combined with Ry McLeod and danced infield from the right flank to curl one home with his left foot.
Celebrating a Jerson Special.
Melville needed Jerson’s goal because they managed few other shots in perfect conditions and it was the first time Melville had failed to win at home in pre-season – if you discount the Wednesday night training group’s 1-1 draw the other week with Ngaruawahia.
Suburbs had former Melville players Jake Mechell and Adam Thomas out injured – both are no strangers to the physio table - while former Melville keeper Joe Knowles was in Australia. However another former Melville lad, Josh Who, did get some game time for Suburbs, and got to take a couple of free kicks. He played in midfield alongside former Melville player Tyler Lissette.
Suburbs also featured Martin Bueno, perhaps best known for his tiresome simulations, but he failed to ruin the contest on this occasion.
Suburbs’ striker Bueno couldn’t believe he didn’t get a free kick every 90 seconds or so, as he fine-tuned his dives for the season ahead.
Suburbs equalised late in the game through defender Ralph Rutherford.
It was the first match back on Gower No 1, however the pitch is again due to be closed for further renovation in the next week or so.
Melville coach Jarrod Young was happy with his team’s effort.
“Getting towards the end of pre-season we were after a tough game against strong opposition and we had that in Eastern Suburbs,” he said.
“For the coaching team we saw good signs and improvements throughout most of the match.
“Every week we are adding layers and getting better, but we all know preseason is preseason and we need to be at a higher level in the coming weeks.”
With a surplus of defenders, Aaron Scott continued to play as a midfielder, where he was Melville’s most accurate passer by far.
Matches against Tauranga – who finished third in northern league division one last season - were considered a derby in some quarters when Sam O’Regan was playing for them, but not so much now.