Sloppy defence lets Red Sox down

A poor defensive effort put paid to Red Sox-manawatu’s Chatham Cup hopes when they were beaten 4-3 by Napier Marist at Memorial Park on Saturday.

With Palmerston North Marist having a bye through to the second round, Red Sox were the only Manawatu team involved in the country’s major knockout competition.

In a sign of things to come, things didn’t start well for Red Sox, as their fans were still getting to their seats a horror defensive mistake gave Red Sox goalkeeper Scott Outtrim no show and Napier the lead after just 32 seconds.

As Red Sox continued to defend poorly, only some great goalkeeping from Outtrim and terrible finishing from Napier Marist kept Red Sox a goal behind.

But another defensive error gave Marist a deserved second goal after 20 minutes.

Red Sox didn’t have the defensive blues on their own though, and surprisingly Red Sox scored three goals before the break to lead 3-2.

Brandon Jackson was then the architect of all three goals.

The first a well-placed free kick saw Liam Patterson head in before a brilliant driven cross found Ryan Noble, who volleyed in with his first touch.

Jackson then scored a cracker of a goal just before halftime with a strong left-footed drive from outside the goalbox.

It wasn’t long before Red Sox again found themselves under pressure as they failed to clear a ball into the goalbox and Marist was able to get back level.

Despite struggling to string more than three passes together against a Marist side that had a far better attacking pattern, Red Sox stayed at 3-3 until the 65th minute when another defensive error allowed Marist to hit the front.

It went from bad to worse when Outtrim, again let down by poor marking, was sent off for taking the Marist striker out.

With eight minutes left Marist had a player sent off for a nasty two-footed tackle and Red Sox then had three chances to level the game but failed to take them.

The result wasn’t great and Red Sox coach Neil Perry would have been disappointed a team that plays in a lower league was able to pressure a young and developing Red Sox into basic defensive errors, especially at not marking tightly and allowing the Marist players to turn and run at the Red Sox defence.

Despite being sent off Outtrim was the best Red Sox player, but received little support from the players in front of him.

Jackson struggled defensively but was quality on the ball but unfortunately received little ball in the second half. In the Federation Cup,

had their first win of the season, beating

3-1 in Napier with Charlie Mcillwaine (two) and Joe Freeman scoring Massey’s goals.

While

University United Massey Gisborne

Palmerston North Marist Reserves New Plmouth Rangers

beat 4-3 in Wanganui.