Soccer: Players impress in entertaining draw

HB United players defend against a Wellington Phoenix A freekick in Napier yesterday in a soccer friendly at the Bluewater Stadium. Photo/Glenn Taylor

Hawke's Bay United's entertaining 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix A at the Bluewater Stadium last night has thrust several players into contention for the team's upcoming game against Southern United.

Hawke's Bay meet Southern United at the Forsyth Barr stadium on Saturday evening, a team HB Utd coach Chris Greatholder acknowledges as the current form side of the competition based on their last two victories.

But based on the two teams' standings in the league and HB Utd's lofty position five places above the southerners, the visitors should expect to come away with three points, with Greatholder indicating there are "two or three places up for grabs" for the away squad.

Nathaniel Hailemariam did his reputation no harm last night, with his pace a threat for the young development Phoenix team and he eventually grabbed the home side's equaliser with a deft lob over Phoenix goalkeeper Lewis Italiano (whose contract extension was announced yesterday), created by a long ball into the goal mouth from Dave Mulligan.

The Phoenix had opened the scoring with Joel Steven's curled shot early in the second half.

"We needed certain players to get a certain amount of minutes and there's a group of players coming back from injuries that we were able to give 90 minutes to," Greatholder said. "It was a good chance to try to express ourselves, try a few things and new combinations and stuff, and to large extent we've done that."

The two final goals didn't arrive until the final 10 minutes of the match, with a placed shot again from the Phoenix. This time it was Justin Gulley, whose goal was the likely winner until Angus Kilrolly lashed one into the net from a tight angle only seconds before injury time.

"There's few lads that have been on the bench who have put themselves in the starting slots," Greatholder said.

"I think Grant Robson had a good game, I think Harry Edge hasn't played in a while and he got better as the game went on. Nathaniel, who obviously scored the goal, he got his first start at the weekend and playing more consistently at this level he's going to start more games.

"Competition for places is really really good, it's probably at a level where it hasn't been before.

" I've got 11 in mind in the weekend but the bench is a whole different problem for me but as I say, it's a good problem."

HB Utd 2 (Nathaniel Hailemariam, Angus Kilkolly) Phoenix A 2 (Joel Stevens, Justin Gulley). HT: 1-0 Bay Utd.