Football: Rovers breeze past rivals

Coach Bill Robertson lauded tireless worker Josh Stevenson.

It's a given that it'll be blowing a gale in Wellington so the challenge for visiting teams is how to harness the elements to their advantage.

Conroy Removals Napier City Rovers, it seems, did that with aplomb when they beat Western Suburbs 3-2 in their Lotto Central League match at Endeavour Park on Saturday.

Player/coach Bill Robertson said that with the wind behind their backs, the first-half mantra was simply to use that to score as many goals as possible and make the Declan Edge-coached hosts play catch-up footy.

"Our game plan was to press them high and not let them develop their possession-based style of game," said the centreback as they opened a 2-0 buffer at halftime.

Striker Tom Biss opened the Blues' account in the 27th minute, before midfielder Josh Stevenson stuck to his good habit of making it 2-0 in the 34th minute.

"At halftime I just told the lads to carry on doing what we were doing in the first half even though the wind was against us," Robertson said.

"They pushed us and didn't allow us to play but we looked pretty dangerous on counterattacks."

The Team Wellington captain, who has played a few summers in the capital city, said the Rovers should have scored a few more goals to put the game away much earlier but had failed to capitalise on the opportunities created.

Western Suburbs' prolific goalscorer Noah Billingsley tested the visitors' defence without injured centreback Finlay Milne and came up trumps, pegging the deficit to 2-1 in the 61st minute to push the ball past goalkeeper Kyle Baxter.

Spurred into action, English import Saul Halpin cranked up the engine as the Western Suburbs defence brought him down in the 18m box to concede a penalty kick.

Fellow centre-mid and English import Ryan Tinsley didn't make any mistakes in pushing the ball past goalkeeper James McPeake in the one-on-one flutter.

However, Billingsley wasn't done yet - pushing another goal strike past Baxter to make it 3-2 in the 87th minute.

Robertson said while they were a little "light" in the back they came through, with he and captain Danny Wilson marshalling the troops as well exposing some of the bench players to the action.

"It's a pretty big win in the context of a team who were two league points behind us and a potent side," he said as the defending champions maintained their pole position on the table.

Stevenson's hard work also was paying off.

In other games, second-placed Wellington Olympic had to toil at home to pip Lower Hutt City 3-2, Miramar Rangers flogged Palmerston North Marist 7-1, and Wellington United overwhelmed Petone 4-1 away from home.