Tauranga City scrape desperate draw

At the end of the year, if Tauranga City United are forced to look back with regret at one stage of their campaign to get out of the Northern League's lower reaches, June 11 be a crucial date.
Tauranga staggered through 90 minutes of at times comical football on Saturday, missing a season's worth of opportunities in front of goal before finally snatching a dramatic last-gasp 2-2 draw with lowly Papakura City at Links Ave.
The point moved Tauranga from fourth to third in the division-two standings - equal with Hibiscus Coast but ahead on goal difference - but it's the two teams setting the pace up front that provide the most concern at the midway point.
Jarrod Colligan's hat-trick maintained Mt Albert-Ponsonby's handy lead at the top of the table on Saturday, with Nick Snedden adding one as the frontrunners grabbed a 4-1 win over North Shore United. Fencibles United had a firm hold on second place, five points behind Mt Albert, when they downed Hibiscus Coast 1-0.
Tauranga City United co-coaches Grant Turner and John Whitley have been warning for weeks that their failure to convert a mountain of chances into goals would cost them.
On Saturday it did. Tauranga were slow out of the blocks, conceding in the first five minutes when Tarachhay Lai scored with more than a hint of offside.
Tauranga pounded the Papakura goal for the next 85 or so minutes, for little reward. It was a game that had everything - yellow cards approaching double digits, push-and-shove on the ball and off it, and a sublime display of goal-keeping from Papakura stopper Nick Lawrence that frustrated the home side at every turn.
Lawrence, carrying a decent whack of poundage around the midriff, flung himself round like Bruce Grobbelar at his peak, making point-blank saves to deny just about everyone. Tauranga couldn't find the net from the flood of corners they forced, either.
It wasn't until Tauranga did away with trying to break Papakura down in midfield and moved the ball in behind the defence that the trickle of chances became a flood, although it took an own goal from Harley Smith in a mix-up with Lawrence clearing a Josh Nelson cross to square the ledger.
Tauranga's joy was snuffed out a few minutes later when Ross Berry latched on to a Tauranga clearance on the edge of the area and buried a volley, although they snatched a point from the game when second-half sub Byron Thessman headed home unmarked from another Nelson cross at the far post.
It was Thessman's first game for Tauranga City United's Northern League side, and was his second competitive outing of the season. "To come on near the end and score an equaliser like that is pretty cool," said Thessman.
"It got us a point , although who knows if it'll be an important point at the end of the season."