Recap
Ashburton had a disappointing end to the Series Futsal season finishing in the bottom three and facing a relegation battle. Mickleham had a solid season defeating Mt. Evelyn to secure a play off spot in round 20.
It was all one way traffic to start the first half with Ashburton dominating every facet of the game. Defensively they where tight and on the attack they sliced through Mickleham’s defence with ease. This was the case for most of the first half with the ball spending a lot of its time in the back of Mickleham’s net. When opportunities arose they where taken well by Ashburton the only thing stopping them from going further ahead was some good goal keeping by Ivan Pavleka who was working hard to keep his team in the game. There was a single goal scored by Mickleham in the first half; a solitary highlight for the challengers. The half time score line read 3-1 reflecting the state of the game.
The second half was a similar story to the first as Ashburton found themselves with chance after chance on their opponents goal. The Mickleham defence continued to struggle under the weight of attacks as Ashburton where much more efficient in front of goal in the second half. Ashburton looked to be running riot and the scoreline was starting to look ugly for Mickleham. The only highlight of the second half was a long range free kick converted by Stefan Redman. The game finished with Ashburton showing they had a clear upper hand and going into the second leg with a six goal advantage. The final score line reading eight goals to two.