Football: Rovers retain lead with satisfying win

Stop Out 1 Rovers 3 Central League

Napier City Rovers have maintained their three-point lead on the Central League table after a solid victory.

The Bill Robertson-coached Blues beat Stop Out 3-1 at Hutt Park on Saturday after leading 1-0 at halftime.

For Robertson it was a good performance for different reasons.

"It was tricky conditions. It was quite windy and the pitch wasn't great. It was wobbly and something we're not used to at Bluewater Stadium," he said of the grass surface in the capital city.

Robertson said the Rovers had played Stop Out three times this winter and in the last two games the hosts had made life difficult for them. The Rovers beat Stop Out 2-1 in a Chatham Cup match at Park Island last month and 3-1 at the same venue early in the season.

On Saturday, he felt Stop Out had created half chances when the Blues led 2-1 but his "lads had pulled themselves together to hit the road with three points".

The visitors went up 1-0 from an Angus Kilkolly penalty kick in the 17th minute after a defender brought down Josh Stevenson in the box.

It was not until the 71st minute that centre-mid Tom Biss made it 2-0 from a freekick but Stop Out struck back almost immediately, when Micky Malivuk nodded the ball in from a counter-attack.

Midfielder Ryan Tinsley pacified the hosts with an 89th-minute goal from the edge of the box.