Defeat stalls Bay of Plenty's Northern League teams

Tauranga City's Adam Davidson on the ball. Photo / File

Week six of Northern League Football brought defeat for both Bay of Plenty teams on Saturday.

Tauranga City were beaten 3-0 by Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore – their second trip there in seven days. The loss dropped Tauranga to sixth on the table and continued their pattern of alternating victory and defeat. The loss came just two days after beating Fencibles United 3-1.

Tauranga coach Nic Millichip says his side are playing good football but were guilty of coughing up possession against Takapuna.

"We looked really good again and we made a few chances but we didn't put them away.

"They countered pretty well and we gave the ball away cheaply a few times, that sums up the game pretty well. There was no lack of effort."

Tauranga are at home to play ninth-placed Waiheke this week who only trail Tauranga by one point.

"It is a really tight league and you can see from the table that it is hard to predict. We have to be positive about what we are doing and, it is a pretty simple formula. I think we are playing good football. If you have couple of good runs you can get yourself in good position in the competition," Millichip says.

Tauranga have scored nine goals from their six games this season and are the only team in the top eight with a negative goal difference.

"We need to score more goals, there is no magic bullet."

In the second division, McDonalds Ngongotahā Men's NRFL first team could not build on a good Anzac Day performance and lost 4-0 to Oratia United in Waitakere. Ngongotahā coach Andrew Gibbs says Oratia are the best side they have played this year.

"They were very fit and fast and had smart players. In lots of patches we played better football, but they knew what was going to work from them. We missed some execution on some of the final passes and they counter attacked quickly when we did that. We let in four soft goals which I am not happy about. In the second half we were much better and we kept them scoreless."

Ngongotahā return home this week to play Franklin United, who have had a similar start to the season, and Gibbs says his team has a good shot at picking up their first win of the season.

"We are confident going into that game, they are side we should beat and one we need to beat. They tend to be quite a defensive team so we are going to have a big session on dealing with the long balls as that is somewhere we keep getting caught out. We will have really good intensity at training this week."