Football: Biss and Watson set alight Wairarapa

Wairarapa United midfielder Tom Biss keeps Napier City Rovers counterpart Miles John at bay as Thomas Hemi watches at Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt, on Saturday. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV

It's enough to make any coach tear his hair out but how does a team squander a 4-1 halftime lead to slump 7-4 at the final whistle?

Easy, actually. Just blink, like the Bluewater Napier City Rovers did on Saturday, despite all the pre-match indication anything short of 90-plus minutes was going to come back to bite them.

A blink, figuratively speaking, is all Wairarapa United needed to reel in the visitors at Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt, in their crucial Lotto Central League football match.

It was a dramatic turnaround from their out-of-sorts 3-0 loss at Park Island, Napier, on May 18.

"In the first half we implemented a game plan to put them under pressure and stop them playing," said coach Bill Robertson on Saturday after not taking the field as centreback because of a hip-flexor injury he picked up in the 2-0 Chatham Cup semifinal loss in Auckland the previous Sunday.

Josh Stevenson struck in the 7th minute but Wairarapa's Thomas Hemi levelled terms, 1-1, almost immediately.

Rovers midfielder Ryan Tinsley made it 2-1 in the 21st minute from a penalty kick before right-mid Fergus Neil extended it to 3-1 two minutes later.

Welsh import Miles John scored in the 41st minute.

At halftime Robertson told his troops not to change much because of their ascendancy, keeping imposing striker Hamish Watson on a leash.

"In the second half, a little bit of complacency probably kicked in," he said.

"We were very complacent and very slow and gave them too much space, allowing them to control the game."

In a nutshell, golden boot leader and Wellington Phoenix sqaud member Watson scored a penalty in his hat-trick of goals in the space of 15 minutes to level, 4-4.

Said Bay-born Wairarapa centre-mid Tom Biss: "They [Rovers] looked after Watson pretty well in the first half."

When they refocused on Watson it freed up Biss to claim his hattrick, too.

"At halftime we were pretty down but if there's one thing we do is play right to the end no matter how many goals down we are.

"We said we'd go out there for the next 45 minutes to empty our tanks," said Biss who finds out in a fortnight if he's going to play for Kinetic Electrical Hawke's Bay United again this summer in the ASB Premiership.

"We've got to the end of the season now but Rovers have two more tough games," he said of the Blues' two home games against 2014 league champions Miramar Rangers and second-placed Western Suburbs.

Biss and his captain/defender, Adam Cowan, were named in a Central League Select XI to play against the Wellington Phoenix at Weka Park, in the Kapiti Coast, in a 2pm kick off this Sunday.

Robertson said Wairarapa were capable of scoring eight to nine goals with high-quality individuals who caused them problems.

"We made some personnel changes but we don't want to make too many excuses as all the players are good enough to play at this level."

Matt Hastings pulled out with an injury after warming up.

Phil Dol played leftback, Josh Anstis was rightback and Bayley Chadderton slotted into Robertson's centreback position.

Oli Chapman was in Chris Greatholder's holding midfield role while Stu Wilson was in the place of striker Angus Kilkolly who was serving a match suspension for five yellow cards.

Wairarapa 7 Rovers 4