International Retirement

Zephyr Manager Steve Hall declared his international retirement today after failing to be called up for the New Zealand team to play New Caledonia. "Fortunately I'm still able to consider representative honours as I played today in the Town versus Country at North Wellington club" said Hall "and you'll find my name on the card for the second team on the same day although I never got on the field, in fact I never even put my kit on". Hall said he had not phoned Rikki Herbert for an explanation but he knew Herbert had a lot on his mind with the recent form of the Phoenix. "I'm tempted to give Rikki a few pointers again" said Hall "but I've got every confidence New Zealand will beat New Caledonia this evening but disappointed I won't see any of the million for qualifying for the Confederations Cup. Hall would not say what his fee for playing for Country was over the weekend but said "I love football and will play for free if I have to". Hall played no international games for either his birth country or his adopted country but always felt he was close to a call up.

FNZ Soundly Beaten

Zephyr Rovers Manager Steve Hall said that Zephyr Rovers had had no problems disposing of lower league opposition today at the Shed of Dreams, despite George Nash (pictured) being full of the flu. "We were five goals to nil up when I decided to have a run in the outfield""said Hall "but when it got back to 5 - 2 I scurried back into the goals for fear of them getting back in it". Hall said Rovers stabilised after his return to goal and Rovers went on to score another four goals unanswered. "I actually had a clean sheet when I was in goal but the stand ins let a couple in" said Hall "and the distribution went from excellent to very poor, which explains why I couldn't buy a goal in the outfield". Hall said the fear was the teams Rovers were playing were not close to the standard of Division 1 so the Rover would have to lift their game several notches if another Div 1 campaign was to be contemplated. "We still need to strengthen the squad" said Hall "unless we end up in Div 2 where we'd be ok".

Final: Rovers 9 FNZ 2

Phoenix Horrible

Zephyr Rovers Manager Steve Hall said he had made a mistake in watching the Wellingto Phoenix game against Adelaide in the hope pf gainimg managerial inspiration for the forthcoming Division 1 campaign. "The Phoenix lost 3 - 0 and were shocking" said Hall "and frankly I could have subbed on and made a bigger impact". Hall said the game showed the pressure of being a football manager and getting a team motivated. "I'm lucky really with Rovers that some of the players come naturally hyped up"said Hall "it doesn't usually take much to get a discussion going between me and George during a game, and he's lucky I don't usually understand a word of what he says in the heat of the moment". Hall said if the Phoenix neded a pre-match pep talk before their next match he'd be happy to send his Chairman down to say a few words. "I'm sure Goerge would put a bomb under them"" said Hall "they wouldn't want to come back to the dressing room having lost three nil that is for sure".

Moss Shocker

Zephyr Rovers Manager Steve Hall confirmed he was available for immediate call up after watching a shocking performance from Glen Moss as the Phoenix went down to Melbourne at the Ring of Fire. "They seemed to have a bit more water on the pitch than we do down at the Shed of Dreams and Moss made a few errors"said Hall "perhaps he needs to come down and watch Rovers and see what diving around on concrete feels like". Hall said that carpet on concrete was the perfect way to harden Moss up for the remaining A League fixtures. "What I find interesting about indoor keeping is that if you survive the fall onto the concrete floor then you forget about the carpet burns you get whilst doing it" explained Hall "and once in a while when you bend your finger back, you can at least have the joy of the carpet turning from red to green so you can see it". Hall said Rovers would welcome Moss coming down for a bit if toughening up. "We will give anone advice in this team"said Hall "no one is too big to be brought down to earth".

Rovers Outclassed

The return of Pete Roberts to the Rovers line up did not prevent a loss to Harp Shooters at the Shed of dreams. ""We have no excuses for this one"said Rovers Manager Steve Hall "we had a pretty strong line up out for the game, we had a lot of possession and territory, but we weren't good enough to put them away". Hall said Harp Shooters play a defensive quick break style that proved highly effective against Rovers. "We need a few more goals for all our efforts, but we tried to get too close and didn't shoot enough from distance" said Hall "perhaps Ben White would have made a difference but most likely it was the lack of a stable line up that is impacting on us the most". Hall said there was no doubt the teams at the bottom half of Division 1 had improved a lot over the second half of the season. "There are no easy game in Division 1 now"said Hall "we just got beaten by all the teams in the lower half after beating two of them in the first round".

Final: Rovers 3 Harp Shooters 6

Rovers Return

Zephyr Rovers Manager Steve Hall confirmed this afternoon that Pete Roberts would be one of several players to return for the rematch against Harp Shooters for the wooden spoon. "We've suddenly got Matty (pictured) and Pete back, and John, Eddie and Dan are all available"said Hall "so we probably have the strongest line up for some weeks". Hall said it wasn't exactly a case of revenge over Harp Shooters, he was treating it as a pre-season friendly. "Ok so it will be sweet if we can get one back over them and I assure everyone I'll be playing in goal" said Hall "but it is the grading games now that matter more and we need to win those to stay in Division 1 for next season". Hall said he was looking forward as well to the Phoenix game later today for inspiration. "I think you can get recharged watching a bit of football"said Hall "I've already watched three Premier League games and the highlights, so the world doesn't seem such a bleak place today".

Punished

"I don't want to talk about it" said Zephyr Rovers Manager Steve Hall as Rovers were today whipped by Ten Left Feet. "We would go a long way to find a worse game than that" said Hall "we started brightly enough but we didn't build from the back very well and the distribution wasn't too flash". Hall said playing himself out field hadn't worked that well. ""I was a bit knackered from lack of recent outfield experience" said Hall "but I don't think I got a ball to feet from the back all day, so I appreciated that I need to get back into goal so that we can get some quality ball delivered up front". Hall said it was interesting that the defence thought the attacking was at fault. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion but as manager I know I'm right" said Hall "at the end of the day we need to get back to positions we know and I know this squad has it in them to beat Ten Left Feet again, but full credit today as they took us to the cleaners". Hall said he needed to rebuild the squad to ensure more depth was available. "I'll be taking a look at Robbie Keene (pictured)" said Hall "on the tele".

Final: Rovers 2 Ten Left Feet 10