Football: Namesake glum as Smith scores

Jarrod Smith was delighted with the close win; but the defeat left Jarrod Smith deflated.

One coach felt robbed, the other believed his side deserved to win.

Soccer is a confusing game at times. Let's clear up the name puzzle first. Both Napier City Rovers and Lower Hutt City have a striker with the same name, and both played in the Hutt Valley yesterday, with the Bay player coming away with a grin after he scored to set Rovers up for a 2-1 win, their first in the Central League in three attempts this season.

The manner in which they came away with three points left the home side gutted as they had dominated possession and had by far the bulk of opportunities, but profligacy in front of goal was their undoing.

However, the way the game unfolded fails to tell the story of two different teams. Napier City Rovers are a more experienced unit, retaining much of the side that took them to second place in this league last year and to the final of the Chatham Cup. They are a tough side not afraid to win ugly if need be, two bookings proving they can get stuck in. But, more ominously for other teams in this league, they have a solid back four.

Three members of the defence formed the backbone of last season's team with new boy Daniel Ball having an experienced head on his shoulders.

Opposing them at Bell Park for a well-attended Anzac Day clash was a team whose average age in their starting line-up was 18. They are in the process of rebuilding and, while they possess plenty of pace and skill, and are fantastic to watch, their finishing was poor yesterday and they didn't have the ideas to change the game.

None of which worried Rovers coach Grant Hastings.

"Today was a good victory, we threatened lots of times, we weren't far from creating more chances, and we obviously had a very good chance toward the end there [when Smith shot directly at the Hutt keeper].

"But ... did we play as well as I wanted to? No. Did we have patience and shape out of possession? Yeah, we did."

"For the amount of possession they had, how often did they really threaten our goal?

Coming off the pitch, two of the Rovers coaching staff used the word "ugly" to describe the win, and while Hastings didn't apply that term, he did feel that their defending, patience and clinical finishing were decisive.

And he alluded to the team's experience and character: "If you're serious, you have to have grown-ups to win this league."

From the start, Lower Hutt looked a threat, with their Jarrod Smith almost latching on to a cross and he, James Vernon and Tobias Bertsch, in particular, had good chances to score.

Very much against the run of play, Napier's Rainer Bauerfiend shook off two defenders, swivelled and struck a curler into the back of the net with 20 minutes gone. On the one-hour mark, Smith found himself with space in the box and drove the ball past talented teen stopper Scott Basalaj for the second.

With 12 minutes remaining, Cameron Lidstone got Lower Hutt a goal back but Rovers nullified them thereafter and the former All White Smith should have added a second in injury time, but took too long on the ball.

"I'm gutted because I thought there was only one team in the game, we had the majority of the chances," said Hutt City coach Brendan McIntyre.

"We have a very young side with not a lot of experience but we played some terrific football today. We didn't have [Hawke's Bay Utd] striker Hamish Watson who was injured, so we lacked a bit of a cutting edge up front.

"We will improve over the season and learn from defeats like today and we will do well."