Title-chasing Eastern Suburbs have missed out on the chance to break into the top two while Hamilton Wanderers, Canterbury United and Hawke’s Bay United have all made up ground on the leading trio after the latest bout of action in the ISPS Handa Premiership this afternoon.

With defending champions Auckland City and Team Wellington both not in action due to the latter’s involvement in the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, third-placed Suburbs had the chance to leap-frog Wellington into second place and draw nearer to table-topping Auckland in the process.

But they were able to pick up only one point in a frustrating afternoon for Danny Hay’s side at Riverhills Park, a stoic defensive display from Tasman United holding the Lilywhites to a scoreless draw. Tasman went into the match with just one win to their name and it was hardly surprising therefore that their game plan involved getting plenty of men behind the ball and making it difficult for Suburbs to break them down with their possession-based style.

Despite seeing little of the ball themselves, the tactic worked for Tasman, who were also indebted to an outstanding display in goal from Nick Stanton.

“It’s tough to break down 11 men but I think the drop of the ball just didn’t really fall our way today, we could have scored one or two there,” Suburbs captain Tim Payne said. “We have to be pleased with the performance because I think we dominated the whole game but to come away with a draw is disappointing.”

Tasman counterpart Fox Slotemaker made no apologies for his side’s approach and was pleased to take something back to Nelson.

“They’re very good in the final third and we wanted to really limit the time they had in there,” he said. “We did sit in quite deep and didn’t have quite as much possession as we wanted to but, being away from home against such a quality side, you have to expect that. We defended really well and I was really proud of the boys."

While those who gathered at Riverhills might have felt short-changed by the lack of goals, there were no such problems elsewhere as the net was bulged all over the country.

The most action-packed period took place in Napier, where it was already 2-2 between Hawke’s Bay and Southern United by half-time. Benjamin Wade gave Southern an early lead which was soon cancelled out by Sho Goto and the Bay then hit the front themselves through Sam Mason-Smith.

The hosts failed to take that advantage into the break as Garbhan Coughlan equalised just before the half-time whistle but a bending free kick from Maxime Oliveri mid-way through the second spell proved enough to earn a third win of the campaign for Hawke’s Bay.

Also picking up their third win were the Dragons of Canterbury, who accounted for Waitakere United 2-1 in Christchurch. Nigerian striker Sanni Issa had actually given the west Aucklanders the lead but Canterbury drew level with one of the last kicks of the first half through a classy Gary Ogilvie finish and repeated the trick in the second by producing a late Juan Chang Urrea winner.

“You’re always happy when you get three points but there were elements where we needed to improve, certainly our defending in the first half,” Canterbury assistant coach Joe Hall said.  

“We have to take away from this the need to manage games. You saw the chances they had today – we’ve had some games this season where maybe that hasn’t gone our way but today we managed to get through it and we definitely need to continue that.”

Waitakere coach Chris Milicich was disappointed to see so many opportunities go begging and felt that lack of ruthlessness in front of goal cost his side the game.

“I thought we played extremely well and created enough chances to win numerous games,” he said. “We should easily have been a few goals up but we weren’t and we’ve then allowed two pretty soft goals to go in. I think we were by far the better team all game so we’re pleased with how we played but certainly not with the result.”

The other side to take all three points was Hamilton Wanderers, who hung onto their place in the top four with a 3-1 win over the Wellington Phoenix Reserves at home. Papua New Guinea international Tommy Semmy scored twice for Wanderers before Martin Bueno added a third while the ‘WeeNix’ could only reply through first-team professional Mitch Nichols, the Socceroo writing the latest chapter in a storied career by netting in New Zealand’s national league.

For the ISPS Handa Premiership table and other information please click here

ISPS Handa Premiership Match Week Nine Results

Hawke’s Bay United 3 (Sho Goto 28’, Sam Mason-Smith 36’, Maxime Oliveri 64’)
Southern United 2 (Benjamin Wade 10’, Garbhan Coughlan 42’)
HT: 2-2

Canterbury United Dragons 2 (Gary Ogilvie 45’, Juan Chang Urrea 85’)
Waitakere United 1 (Sanni Issa 23’)
HT: 1-1

Hamilton Wanderers 3 (Tommy Semmy 16’, 67’, Martin Bueno 77’)
Wellington Phoenix Reserves 1 (Mitch Nichols 37’)
HT: 1-1

Eastern Suburbs 0
Tasman United 0
HT: 0-0

Article added: Sunday 09 December 2018