Down 4-2 at halftime, Thistle still looked capable of salvaging a point early in the second half.
Two setbacks in the third quarter of the game made their task much harder.
In the 58th minute, Jags centreback Ryan Noon was shown the yellow card for a foul tackle about the middle of the pitch. It was his second yellow-card offence of the game, so yellow became red and he was sent off.
In the 65th minute, Michael Sheridan, who had come on as a substitute 10 minutes earlier, drove home the fifth PNU goal, which made the closing stages of the game decidedly more comfortable for the visitors.
Centreback Nathan Cooksley had given PNU the lead in the 12th minute when he stayed in the Thistle penalty area following an attacking corner and scored with a glancing header to a ball played in by leftback Yaypay Tha.
Thistle equalised six minutes later. Somerton chased a ball from rightback Andre Baple and advanced into the PNU penalty area. He shrugged off one challenge and, as he brought the ball back towards the edge of the box, a whistle from a game on the neighbouring pitch seemed to cause the defenders to hesitate. Somerton teed up his shot and curled the ball into the far corner of the goal, by way of the fingertips of goalkeeper Dominic Semmens.
Bell got his first goal in the 24th minute when striker Aaron Richardson rolled the ball into his path as Bell got away from his marker. A deft first-time touch slotted the ball wide of goalkeeper Mitchell Stewart-Hill.
PNU midfielder Olly Ceci almost made it three when his fierce shot from the right flank was pushed past the near post by the ’keeper.
A goalmouth scramble in the 34th minute ended with the ball popping out to Bell six metres out, and he blasted it into the net for 3-1.
Jags holding midfielder Cory Thomson received a head knock in the melee before the goal, and he was off the field being assessed when PNU went 4-1 up in the 37th minute. Lively right-winger Benjamin Mori got clear and whipped the ball across the box for Bell to finish.
Davie Ure came on for Thomson and in the last minute of the half he hit a ball that had PNU in trouble. Centreback Cooksley got his head to the ball but only helped it on as he and Somerton went after it. Cooksley appeared to run into Somerton’s heel and he fell, leaving Somerton to hammer the ball home from eight metres.
Three minutes into the second half, Thistle centreback Finn McAuley caused some concern when he went to ground with what looked to be the effects of a head knock. He was replaced by Te Kani Wirepa-Hei, who went to rightback and performed creditably. Daniel Venema moved from leftback to centreback and Baple moved from rightback to leftback.
When Noon was sent off, Nicky Land — a standout performer for Thistle on the day —shifted to centreback alongside Venema and they kept things as tight as might be expected for a team a man down.
Both teams brought on fresh legs. Apart from Ure and Wirepa-Hei, Thistle brought on Alex Shanks for Hall in the 80th minute and Ander Batarrita for midfielder David Salmon in the 82nd.
United, feeling the effects of a Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday playing schedule, emptied their bench. Sheridan came on for Yaypay Tha in the 55th minute, Caleb Young came on for holding midfielder Devon Batchelor in the 66th, Ben Meyer came on for Richardson and Bayshi Oo came on for Bell in the 76th, and coach Scott Robson – in his first onfield appearance this season – came on for Cooksley in the 82nd.
Just when it looked as if the game would peter out in goalless twilight, Somerton effortlessly controlled Land’s high clearance, held off one challenge, danced by another and flicked the ball past the ’keeper to make it interesting at 5-3.
It was the second time this season Somerton had scored a hat-trick for the losing side in a Federation League game. The first was in the 4-3 loss to Taradale in Hawke’s Bay on May 27.
He also scored a hat-trick in a 7-6 win against Napier City Rovers Reserves in Hawke’s Bay on April 22.
On Saturday, Hawke’s Bay referee Andy Parker kept a lid on tensions with the help of his yellow card. Thistle’s Noon (twice), Stewart-Hill and Campbell Hall were shown it, as was United’s Cooksley.
Thistle coach Garrett Blair said that with the score at 2-1, he felt the game was fairly evenly balanced. But with Thomson effectively out of commission with a head knock in the lead-up to the third PNU goal and being assessed when the fourth was scored, Thistle had been down to 10 men for those two goals.
The red card shown to Noon — which meant Thistle were a man short for the last half hour — and the strength of the PNU side made things even tougher.
Blair said Land played really well in the holding midfield role and at the back, while Somerton was a class apart.
“I think he (Somerton) could definitely play at central and national league level,” he said. “I hope he gets that opportunity again.”
Hall did well in a wide role, especially in the more defensive position the flank players were asked to adopt to help out in midfield, Blair said.
The introduction of Wirepa-Hei and Shanks boded well for the future of the club, and the team as a whole showed good character in not giving up, even when down to 10 men.
PNU coach Robson singled out Bell and Ceci for special mention and said he was pleased to get three points at the end of a long trip.
The ambition in forming Palmerston North United out of the Massey University, North End and Red Sox clubs was to win promotion from the Central Federation League.
He had thought it might take more than one year to achieve, as they were a young team. However, if it happened this year it would be no more than they deserved. They had already shown plenty of fight when they came from being a goal down against Palmerston North Marist last Wednesday to score twice in stopping time — in the 91st and 94th minutes — to give them a chance of promotion.
