Soccer: United bounce back to grind out victory

Tauranga City United got their football season back on track on Saturday courtesy of a battling 2-1 win over bottom-placed Papakura City in the Northern League's second division.

It wasn't pretty but was aptly summed up by coach Merv Montgomery after the match - "a win's a win."

After losing 7-5 at home the previous week the pressure was on the Blues to get back to winning form. They weren't helped in the 10th minute when Papakura's Daniel Billot beat the City defence wide on the left and calmly fired a shot wide of keeper Dale Schischka to put the visitors one up.

Tauranga responded quickly when, five minutes later, Isaac Bright slotted home from a Jordan Culpepper free kick. Jindrich Han was denied by the Papakura keeper a few minutes later and it turned out to be a frustrating afternoon as, despite having several good chances, luck deserted Hahn in front of goal.

Tauranga took the lead in the 28th minute following some slick interplay between Connor Irvine and Culpepper which resulted in the latter firing home from close range.

The second half lacked the opportunities of the first but generally Tauranga held much of the possession, finding Papakura's spoiling 10-man defence hard to crack.

Graham Craven, who started his first match for a couple of months following a knee injury, maybe rushed his return as he was forced to leave the field early in the second half, forcing Scott Doney to come on up front to make up the numbers. Papakura had a spell of applying the pressure but never really looked like scoring. Tauranga's efforts were spoiled with some wayward passing. Doney was unlucky not to get his name on the sheet midway through the half when his header hit the crossbar.

The win lifted Tauranga into fifth place on the table, just two points behind North Shore who lost 2-1 to Manukau City and three shy of Mangere United, who were downed 2-1 by a surging Waiuku.

Hibiscus Coast and Western Springs still occupy the top two spots. Tauranga are back in action at home again today in their Chatham Cup round two clash with premier league side Central United, with their next league game a tricky away fixture against Mangere United.