Thistle, United fill top two spots

ANOTHER SHOT BLOCKED: Thistle goalkeeper Mark Baple spreads himself in front of a Taradale attacker. Baple’s ability to block shots in one-on-one contests is a feature of his play. File picture by Liam Clayton

GISBORNE sides Thistle and United are first and second respectively in football’s Pacific Premiership following wins in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday.

Gisborne Vehicle Testing Thistle beat previous league leaders Havelock North Wanderers Reserves 2-1 at Guthrie Park, Havelock North, and Heavy Equipment Services United beat Hastings Western Rangers 4-1 at St Leonards Park, Hastings, and Josh Adams grabbed his fourth hat-trick of the season.

Those results left Thistle at the top of the table on 15 points, and United in second place — on goal difference from Havelock — on 13.

Previously unbeaten Taradale Reserves are in fourth place on 12 points after their 4-3 loss to Maycenvale United. Maycenvale also have 12 points, but are fifth because of a worse goal difference. Both teams have a game in hand on the top three.

In Thistle’s game, Havelock opened the scoring after 20 minutes with a breakaway goal to first-team striker Jared Bloor.

Eight minutes later, Thistle centreback George Andrew scored with a far-post header from a corner by Davie Ure.

The 1-1 halftime scoreline was a fair indication of the match to that point.

Early second-half Thistle dominance was rewarded when a Jake Theron cross was deflected over the Wanderers keeper’s head to the back post, where English academy player Brandon Josling headed home to put Thistle 2-1 up.

End-to-end play had spectators on edge, and Thistle’s man of the match, goalkeeper Mark Baple, pulled off some heroic saves to preserve Thistle’s lead.

Coach Garrett Blair was happy with both the result and the effort that went into achieving it.

In United’s game against bottom-of-the-table Western Rangers, player-coach Corey Adams scored the first goal from a goalmouth scramble in the 25th minute.

Younger brother Josh Adams scored the first of his three goals on 35 minutes, lacing the ball into the top left corner.

Just before halftime Rangers got back into the match with a nice header on the back post.

Ten minutes into the second half, Adams lobbed the ball over the advancing Rangers keeper to restore United’s two-goal cushion, and 15 minutes later he completed his hat-trick with a 30-metre free-kick.

Corey Adams said his side had about 75 percent of the possession and defended well.

“It was really good to get three points on the road,” he said.

On Saturday, Thistle will remain top of the table with a 3-0 default win against Hastings Hibernian,who have quit the competition.

United will play Taradale at Harry Barker Reserve at 2.30pm.