United Share Points In Eventful Game

A broken arm, a red card, two penalties, a stunning free kick, there was plenty to talk about after the game between Wellington United and Stop Out in the top of the table clash at Hutt Park on Saturday.

From the start Wellington United quickly set up camp in the Stop Out half and enjoyed the majority of the possession, although despite this they weren't troubling the Stop Out goal as much as they would have liked to. They found a break through in the 29th minute when from a corner the ball flew around the penalty area in both directions before Abdullah Khaled fired a low shot in from the edge of the area which Stop Out's Sam Wright was unable to stop.

United continued to dominate the possession and territory but were unable to capitalise on it before half time. The half ended early when in the 41st minute Stop Out's Bryn Yates made a bad tackle on United's Fizz Aden, Unfortunately when Aden fell his arm hit the ground and ended up broken in two places. The referee blew for the foul straight away and showed Yates a yellow card. While Aden was being attended to, the ref spoke to his assistants and then called Yates back over and showed him a red card instead, much to the anger and dismay of the Stop Out bench and fans. As Aden was being attended to by an ambulance the ref called half time.

There's a cliche in football that 10 men often play better than 11 and Stop Out proved this their 10 men putting in a better performance in the second half than they had in the first, however it was still Wellington United that were controlling the game especially Leo Villa in the midfield. It was Villa who extended United's lead in the 57th minute with a free kick from about 25 meters out. The shot hit the cross bar and rebounded on to the keeper and finished up in the back of the net.

From here United should really have closed out the game, but Stop Out fought back and started putting pressure on the United defence and it paid off in the 89th minute when they won a penalty which was dispatched by James Sutcliffe. Then a minute later they had a second penalty when the ball hit the arm of a United player in the box and the referee deemed it to be hand ball. Sutcliffe again had no problem dispatching the penalty to tie the game up at 2-2.

After the game Stop Out's coach, Alistair Yates, described the second half as a real Stop Out performance, while United's Guillermo Schiltenwolf said that while the easy thing to do would be blame the ref, that was football and these things happen, his team would learn from today and he was pleased with a point away from home that also means United are still unbeaten this season.

Words Dave Webster \ WUAFC Media

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