Football: Bitter, sweet for Bevin at home

NCR 3 Palmy Nth Marist 0
Cup results - Page 12Countless well-wishers were shaking footballer Andy Bevin's hand and patting him on the back.
Minutes later, a subdued Bevin sat in a secluded spot of the main grandstand, using teammate Matt Hastings as a kitchen sponge for his emotional spills.
To the uninitiated it could have looked outlandish, considering the Bluewater Napier City Rovers had just thumped Palmerston North Marist 3-0 to book a quarterfinal berth in the Chatham Cup (national knockout) competition.
Alas, the Rovers striker, who drew first blood in the 35th minute, had played his last home game in Napier before the tour of duty with the New Zealand team to the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Colombia later this month.
It was presumptuous of Mike Goodacre to announce publicly that Bevin was in the team but not naming the immensely talented Hawke's Bay player this Friday would be akin to All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen missing out on the Halberg Awards.
"The team's announced on the 8th [this Friday] but the fan base would like to think that I'm there," a softly spoken Bevin said.
Indubitably the 19-year-old is disappointed.
"I was sitting next to Matt and I said to him I really didn't want to go until the end of the next three rounds leading up to the final," he said.
He then broke into a smile that showed his belief that four-time cup champions Rovers have a good chance to lift the silverware once more, even after their nine-match winning streak came to an end against Wairarapa United the previous Sunday.
While the Rovers could draw Wairarapa when it's done live on Radio Sport after 2pm tomorrow, Bevin said it would be good to play other teams nationally too, after the Phil Keinzley outfit from Masterton pipped Team Wellington 1-0 in added time from a Seule Soromon goal on Saturday.
"It's good to see what the other levels are around the country and how we compare with them.
"Last week's performance was below par from most of the team and we know that and it would be nice to put that right," he said, mindful the Grant Hastings-coached Blues would love nothing more than another chance to put the 2-1 Wairarapa aberration right.
With the Rovers and Palmy North coming into the cup match yesterday not having conceded a goal in cup competition, the visitors looked as if they were in for a dogfight for the first 30 minutes.
Referee Gareth Sheenan disallowed captain/centreback Bill Robertson's header in the sixth minute because it was offside but the visitors, who passed admirably, looked increasingly fragile as the game wore on.
Midfielder Sven Exeter missed a sitter in the 13th.
Two minutes later Marist keeper Nick Hayward denied striker Stu Wilson from a well-timed Josh Stevenson cross to the near post and things looked ominous for the visitors five minutes later when Hayward embarrassingly fumbled a lollipop ball as it clipped the top left corner frame of the goalmouth only to fall back into his hands.
In the 33rd minute, Wilson, in a one-on-one with Hayward as Exeter loomed unmarked on his left shoulder, came off second best when keeper Hayward superbly stymied his wormburner.
But hero turned villain as Hayward came charging out on a speculator, the ball popping up in the air from a Wilson challenge and his defenders were reduced to bystanders as Bevin spanked the ball straight into the net.
Coach Grant Hastings yelled out to his son in the midfield: "Matt, you've got 10 minutes to go now concentrate, concentrate."
They all did and in the 37th minute, defender Danny Wilson made it 2-0 from point-blank range after Palmy North failed to clear a Hastings freekick.
The game hit a dour note after halftime, going through the motions until the 76th minute when substitute striker Andy Pickering unselfishly turned with the ball in the 18m box and flicked it to leftback Fergus Neil lurking on the left to crisply push the ball past the outstretched keeper to nail Marist's coffin.
Palmerston North coach Steve Green said: "I take nothing away from Napier City Rovers and wish them all the luck to win for the Central region."
Green agreed keeper Hayward kept them in the game but also lauded Rovers gloveman Shaun Peta and Robertson.
"He [Robertson] got way with a lot of elbows and stuff but we got a solid tackle on him in the first minute so I think it only served to rev him up a bit.
"I didn't think we were three goals worse than them," he said of Marist, who face relegation from the Central League as they languish on the last rung on seven points with Cru Bar Maycenvale United above them on 14 points.