Araya goal dents Port Hill’s Pacific title hopes

MATCH-WINNER: Gisborne Thistle striker Hector Araya shields the ball from Port Hill United defender Shay Wall during their Pacific Premiership match at Childers Road Reserve. Araya’s goal in the 62nd minute gave the Jags a 1-0 win. Picture by Liam Clayton

A Hector Araya goal in the 62nd minute gave Gisborne Thistle a hard-fought but deserved 1-0 win against second-placed Pacific Premiership side Port Hill United at Childers Road Reserve on Saturday.

The victory has the Jags fifth on the table, two points behind Heavy Equipment Gisborne United, who beat Eskview 4-2 at Harry Barker Reserve.

The loss put a huge dent in Port Hill’s title hopes. They are now five points behind leaders Napier City Rovers, with four games remaining.

Thistle celebrated as though they had won the league after referee Matt Hastings blew for fulltime, and they had every right to be happy.

With a lot at stake, the first 45 minutes was not pretty, with Port Hill perhaps looking the more settled team.

Thistle were guilty of giving the ball away and trying to be too clever when the simple pass was on.

The biggest culprit was the match-winner Araya, who caused the Port Hill defence problems with his skill on the ball throughout the game. All too often, having turned his man inside out, he failed to deliver the telling pass.

However, as the match went on Thistle took control. Defenders Max Mita, Liam Ryan and Chris Spurr were quick to shut down an attacks.

On the rare occasions when Port Hill threatened, Mita’s positional sense proved vital.

With Land, Max Logan, David Ure and Olly Tilley dominating the midfield, Thistle looked the team most likely to score.

They should have scored in the 50th minute after good one-two passing between Logan and Tilley opened the defence and left Araya with a one-on-one with goalkeeper Stuart McVeigh, only for Araya to drag his shot wide of the post.

It could have proved costly as Port Hill launched a counter-attack which forced Thistle keeper Mark Baple to come off his line quickly to avert the danger.

Then came the moment Thistle fans had been waiting for. Left-back Daniel Venema started the move with a pass to Ure in midfield, Ure looked up and saw Araya in space and his first-time pass found Araya, with one man to beat.

Araya once again turned his man inside out and he struck the ball wide of the keeper and into the botton left-hand corner of the net. It was a cracking goal and one fit to win the game.

“We really wanted this, it was a brilliant win,” said skipper and midfielder Nicky Land, who ran himself into the ground.

“It was a gutsy performance after a pretty even first half but I felt we deserved to win the way we played in the second half.”