Cup glory for our Old Blues

They're Tauranga's best-kept sporting secret ... although possibly not for much longer.
Old Blues scored the biggest win in the club's eight-year history, sending shockwaves through the Chatham Cup knockout competition by eliminating five-time winners Eastern Suburbs in the first round yesterday.
On a Waipuna Park ground soaked by a deluge of rain minutes before kick-off, Old Blues sent Suburbs packing 5-3 for a famous win in front of an embankment of enraptured fans.
Northern League first division side v Waikato-Bay of Plenty Federation club team, David v Goliath - the chasm should have been Grand Canyon-like.
It was - and Old Blues dominated most of it, with a late consolation goal scored by Suburbs flattering the final margin.
Old Blues - erroneously described as a "Sunday league" team on one radio preview - saw off Kevin Fallon's Mt Albert Grammar in qualifying last month. But few apart from those in the know at the club expected them to advance yesterday.
But they play a quality, attacking brand of football that's a thrill to watch. Yesterday, they ran, they hassled, they tackled (hard), they strung some majestic passing sequences together and they weren't afraid to try it on with Suburbs keeper Sean Dowling from close or long range.
Old Blues are the only Tauranga team left in the knockout competition, with the city's other three hopefuls all bundled out in away games on Saturday.
Northern first division side Takapuna toppled Tauranga City United 2-1 with a late winner courtesy of Caesar Meylan sealing the win for the home team after Matt Wallace and United's Ian Stringfellow exchanged goals early in the second half.
D Beckham - Dylan, not David - was on target as first division side Lynn-Avon United downed Tauranga Boys' College 1-0, while Northern League second division side Hibiscus Coast sent Otumoetai packing 4-1.
The eagerly anticipated draw for the next round of the Chatham Cup will be made tomorrow.
The Waikato-Bay of Plenty league leaders, who only formed eight years ago, fell behind to a Heath Coleman goal after just six minutes but equalised from the penalty spot through Karl Bryant 10 minutes later when Jack McNabb, who only arrived at Old Blues last month after defecting from AFC Fury, was felled by Dowling.
Kyosuki Kitano restored Eastern Suburbs' lead shortly after via a flukey deflection but goals to McNabb - a brilliant overhead kick - and Andy Cooper, combined with a penalty save from Alex Bryant in between, saw the home sitting on a 3-2 halftime lead.
Second-half goals to Dan Benson and McNabb extended the lead, with a late goal from Suburbs scant consolation for a first-round exit.
Bryant, who turned the game with his penalty save, said the come-from-behind win would hopefully propel them to more cup success.
"In terms of where we've come from and where we want to go it was a huge day for us, but going behind twice, something we haven't done this season, was a great test of character."
Bryant said he owed his teammates the penalty save (he saved the rebound as well) after an ungainly flap at Coleman's curling corner kick gave Suburbs their opening goal.
"Sometimes you chose the right way to go and sometimes not - there's never a lot of thought going into it. I was happy ... because I was probably at fault with that first one."
Suburbs player/coach Graham Pearce was livid with his side's effort, which he described as "pathetic", refusing to use the 3-hour bus ride south or the inability to do any homework on Old Blues as excuses.
"The simple fact is you turn up anywhere, home or away, and expect to perform to a certain level. I'm not being disrespectful, but we should be able to adapt to anything. We came with some changes to our lineup, but a club like ours should have the depth to adapt, play good football and win.
"There's nothing clever about why we lost - we started well, let in a couple of cheap goals in front a parochial home crowd, and our passing really let us down out there. At times, you'd think we'd never met each other, struggling to get the ball from A to B let alone on to C and then to D."
A pair of recent winners fell in the capital as 2006 champions Western Suburbs were beaten 3-0 away by Lower Hutt City and, for the second year running, 2009 champions Olympic were bundled out by Capital League side Wellington United.