Manurewa AFC

9th Grade Lightning take out prestigious national tournament

	Over the weekend of the 8th, 9th and 10th of October the Manurewa Lightning competed in the Three Kings 9th grade nationals. Heading into the tournament, the Lightning had already tasted success during the year which gave them the confidence to perform well at the highest stage.. They had previous wins in 2011 tournaments at Hamilton, Papamoa, Forrest Hill, Three Kings and Western Springs, runners up at Onehunga Mangere, and Plate wins at Papakura and Glenfield. This was a great build up, alongside playing up in 10th grade on Saturdays and finishing 3rd in premier B.
	The first day had a lot of nerves and hesitation and while it showed on the field, the Lightning scraped wins in all 3 of their opening games, coming from behind to beat Ellerslie 2-1, beating Hibiscus Coast 1-0, and overcoming Waitakere 3-2. While the results weren’t flattering, the coaching team were very satisfied to come away with 3 gutsy, hard-fought wins. The second day brought us no wind and sunshine and the team responded by playing some great football. They had a good first up win against a good Ranui side 4-0, then a hard-working 3-1 win over Papakura. The last game had us up against Forrest Hill and the team came through with a comfortable 5-2 victory. This set us up to finish pool play as top qualifier (the only team to win all 6 pool games) and set us up with a block-buster semi final against local rivals Drury. Finals Monday arrived and the team finally had earned the privilege of playing their games on the outstanding turf of the Three Kings number 1 field. We started slowly against Drury
	and were quickly one goal down. However, a quick reply by Sean Bright had us even at half-time, and was followed by a good second half eventually winning 3-1 to further goals by Cory and Callum. That result gave us a semi-final place against Three Kings, who we have had some great battles in the past. The final result was 3-1 in our favour, goals scored by Sean, Cory and Joel, which was a fair reflection of the game and greatly rewarded the team with a place in the final against Buckland’s Beach. The final arrived and the Lightning team avoided a few first up wobbles to come away with a 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Cory. The support was amazing in the final, with hundreds watching and cheering and a lot of the teams staying to support Manurewa which was great to see. It was a great game to watch and the performance of the Lightning boys was fitting of a winning one. Overall the tournament was a great achievement which has capped off an amazing year for the Lightning. Special thanks to all parents, supporters and especially the boys for their hard-work, dedication and their amazing ability.