Tauranga rue hard fought draw

It speaks volumes for Tauranga City United's growth as a team this season that they can battle to a hard-fought draw with the runaway league leaders and emerge feeling short-changed.
CNS Clinic-sponsored City drew 2-2 with Mt Albert Ponsonby at Mt Maunganui's Links Ave on Saturday, but by the looks on the players' faces you'd have thought they were the seventh team in as many weeks to feel the full force of the Northern League second division side's scoring prowess.
MAP journeyed south with a six-game, six-win record, holding a seven-point lead at the top of the table, but were forced to come back from 2-0 down as both sides waged a running battle for every scrap of possession.
It's an oft-used sporting cliche but Saturday's really was a game of two halves - or more four quarters - with Tauranga dominating the opening and closing spells and Mt Albert controlling the middle portion.
Fencibles United were the only team from among the league's top echelon to snag a win at the weekend, 4-0 over Cambridge, and have now edged ahead of Tauranga into second.
City central defender Graham Craven, the epitome of calm under fire at the back, pushed away talk of there being any joy in being the first side this season to take a point off their high-flying opponents.
"You could look at it - the end result and the way the game panned out - and say 2-2 was a fair result but I know the boys will probably be gutted with it," the 20-year-old former national league defender with Youngheart Manawatu said.
"They created plenty of chances and we had ours but one point doesn't feel satisfying. We were at home, we were up for it and we wanted the three points."
Tauranga came out of the tunnel firing, playing the first 20min with an intensity unlike anything seen at Links Ave for several seasons. Every 50/50 ball was theirs, they had pace and they had vision. Any more intense and they risked self-combustion.
Joel Wakelin scored for Tauranga inside the first 90sec, slicing in behind the shell-shocked MAP defence after a brilliant interchange of passes down the left from Jordan Culpepper and Isaac Bright.
Tom Crawford doubled Tauranga's lead from the penalty spot in the 20th minute after a push in the area from a Crawford corner, with MAP 'keeper Robbie Graham getting a hand to Crawford's strike low to his left but unable to keep the ball out.
Soon after, Mt Albert's Michael Loftus (referee abuse) and Paul Thorpe (throwing the ball away) were booked - a direct result of the pressure Tauranga had them under. But a double strike in 4min just after the half-hour mark from Dean Delaney had MAP back level - the first on the back of Jarred Colligan's curling freekick which Tauranga stopper Scott Robinson deflected on to the post, and a second when he bustled past defender Steve Smith and unleashed from close range.
MAP hammered away without success but Tauranga had their chances too, with Nathan Farey, Wakelin, Culpepper and Ian Stringfellow all going close, only to be thwarted by Graham in goal. The MAP skipper - looking more like a "before" photo in a Weight Watchers advert - flung himself about in a truly game-saving performance.
Craven, who moved north over the summer after several seasons with Youngheart Manawatu under coach Shane Rufer, said it wasn't difficult gearing up to tackle the league's pacesetters.
"We were pumping in the shed, really up for it because we'd targeted this one. [Coach] Grant [Turner] put the acid on us defenders to get more niggly on the strikers and we could see we were pissing them off so we were happy with that, and even happier to be two goals ahead, although it was unfortunate to go into halftime at 2-2."
Craven's appearances at national league level last summer were limited by a dislocated big toe, an injury he's been struggling with for 18 months. He moved north in search of some sun and sand, having grown up in Palmerston North. He's working at Tauranga cafe Bravo and flatting with a couple of his teammates, and couldn't be happier.
"The weather's way better and it's great being so close to the beach. What I've noticed with the football is that there's a greater depth of better teams in the Northern league.
"In the lower leagues here there's still some good teams, whereas in the Central league, which is where I was playing, anything below the top tier isn't that flash."
Fencibles and Tauranga have played a game less than MAP, while the fight for the top two is still intense. Hibiscus Coast's game with North Shore United was postponed while the South Auckland derby saw Waiuku and Papakura draw 3-3. Western Springs and Mangere United were also deadlocked 1-1 and Ngaruawahia thumped Warkworth 5-0.