Football: Tauranga City dismiss competition

Andrew Cooper's wonder strike has helped firm up Belvedere Group Tauranga City as Northern League Second Division favourites. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga City United have given themselves a cushion at the top of the Northern League Second Division standings with an entertaining 3-0 defeat of Forrest Hill-Miford at Links Avenue.

The result gives the competition leaders a four-point lead with six rounds remaining, but with four of those matches on the road, the Blues will likely look back on this one as the defining fixture of their long season.

The visitors looked the better side in the opening 20 minutes, keeping the ball for long periods and stretching a defence forced to cope with wide players overlapping down both flanks.

Then, from nothing, the game burst into life.

The home side struck twice in two minutes, bringing the crowd into the contest save for one patron who was mocked endlessly for a mistimed toilet break.

The first came off a Forrest Hill-Milford defender from a free kick, but captain Sam O'Regan was more than willing to claim the credit for what was a left-footed thunderbolt from a good way outside the box.

The second, stemming from a bouncing ball begging to be hit from almost 30 metres out, fell to Andrew Cooper, whose thumping shot bounced awkwardly just inside the lefthand post.

The twin efforts sat the second-placed side on its heels.

They barely created a decent goal-scoring opportunity the rest of the way, and gave up another quality goal midway through the second spell to fall out of striking distance at the top of the standings.

Jerahl Hughes, who was allowed to run at defenders all day with the ball at his feet, slammed home the third following a clinical counterattack linking O'Regan and the unselfish Jack Chaney.

O'Reagan praised the effort of 17-year-old right-back Will Clague - who stood up well to being targeted all afternoon - and said it was nice to score some fine goals in front of the home fans.

"Those are goals that aren't really scored in this league," he said.

"That's how we play away from home but we don't always get a chance to show that down here. Maybe it's pressure or we panic or there's more expected of us, I'm not sure. We got two goals out of nothing and that happens in football.

"The second goal was the winner - when you play good teams you need to have a buffer." They had been targeting the match for weeks, he said.

"This game means a lot.

"The league is not done but we are strong enough and I'm positive to say we have a good team that's good enough to beat the rest of the teams in this league."

The match was preceded by a moment's silence marking the death of Forrest Hill-Milford player David Mulligan's grandmother.

Tauranga City United 3 (own goal, Andrew Cooper, Jerahl Hughes)
Forrest Hill-Milford AFC 0.