Napier coach Leon Birnie said it was the first time this season he had walked off the pitch telling his players the other team had been too good.
“At Park Island we should have comfortably won the game,” he said of the 1-1 draw in Napier.
“Here we were nowhere near them. They were first to everything, played us off the park and had really good movement up front.
“We didn’t have the time we are used to . . . they were so tight on us.”
But Birnie, who guided New Zealand to a bronze-medal finish at the Under-17 Women’s World Cup, was not critical of his side.
They had proved feisty opponents for a United team giving one of their best performances of the season.
“We had only two players over 19 out there,” Birnie said.
“The point of this team is to give more game time to the 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds who normally sit on the bench for senior sides.”
The two older players were skipper and striker Shae Bauerfeind, still in his mid-20s, and centreback Jonathon Taylor, 41 and showing the class that won him an All Whites cap 20 years ago.
United coach Kieran Venema saluted a job well done.
“Everything I have asked for
. . . today we put it out there,” he said.
“The game plan was to support the ball, and we did that.
“I thought we ‘turned up’ today. We wanted it.
“We were expecting the toughest game of the season. I’m very happy with the way we executed the plan.”
Venema was pleased with the goalscoring feats of Josh Adams, who leads the competition’s golden-boot race with 14 goals, three ahead of second-placed Bauerfeind.
And Venema was impressed with the performance of James Bristow, the player he picked to fill the holding midfield position that he (Venema) normally takes.
“He really stepped up a gear and put in a huge shift. He did all the dirty work and made some big tackles.
“When he got the ball, he didn’t do much wrong, and he was always there in support.”
Venema also mentioned the quality of left-winger Josh Harris, who hit the bar in the 38th minute and looked dangerous every time he got the ball. But United were spoiled for riches on Saturday. Some played better than others, but no one played badly.
Goalkeeper Seth Piper was seldom troubled and could do little about Taylor’s bullet-like header from six metres following a right-wing corner in the 86th minute.
Centreback Kieran Higham was outstanding in a polished back-four display. He and fellow centreback Mal Scammell gave United a solid defensive base.
Rightback Adam Simpson’s speed makes him hard to beat but he showed attacking instincts when he was moved to outside-right after hard-working Sam Royston wrenched an ankle putting a block on the ball as Napier tried to build an attack.
Simpson put the finishing touch to a Corey Adams through-ball that came at the end of a typically incisive run across the top of the penalty area.
Simpson’s calm finish, in the 78th minute, put United 4-0 up.
Corey Boocock filled in efficiently at rightback when he came on for Royston.
Leftback Malcolm Marfell has made that position his own, but will long remember a second-half foray where the ball seemed tied to his boots until Taylor put the ball out for a corner.
Skipper Dane Thompson won some towering headers and was an imposing presence in the midfield battle. But his abiding memory of this game is likely to be his 62nd-minute right-foot volley from a right-wing corner to make it 3-0. Thompson was 10 metres out and Napier goalkeeper Reon Werahiko never had a chance.
Corey Adams seems to have made a good recovery from the knee injury that kept him off the field last season.His runs across the face of the opposing defence draw players to him and open up space for teammates.
Younger brother Josh Adams took his goals well, in the 20th and 52nd minutes. They had a familiar look to them, Adams’s speed taking him away from the defence to get on the end of through balls delivered from midfield. The second came after good work from Harris when he dispossessed a Napier defender.
For Napier, Taylor was the standout performer. His sliding block tackle on Harris in the third minute and a flying block to stop a goal-bound shot from Corey Adams in the 40th were among the defensive highlights.
Others to shine for the visitors were striker Bauerfeind, central midfielders Isaac Milley and Aiden Doran, leftback Jackson Haines, who also did a spell in midfield, and second-half substitutes Oliver Keith up front, Sean Grenside on the left flank and Jack Aitchison at leftback.
Referee Adcock kept things moving, with the help of assistant referees Kayley Knight and, in her debut at this level, Stella Perano.
