ANENDRA SINGH
``Let's give them heaps, boys,' an Auckland City player said as he trudged through the corridor of the changing rooms below the Bluewater Stadium, in Napier, last night.
As they walked past the Hawke's Bay United door the victorious visitors cleared their lungs before rubbing it in by breaking into
a rendition of the famous Liverpool song, We'll Be Coming Down the Road.
Facing the prospect of not making play-offs for the first time, the beleagured boys from the other side of the Bombay Hills played like men possessed.
It was a case of oldies but goodies after defensive midfielder Ivan Vicelich's 33rd minute header saw them pip the hosts 1-nil in round 12 to keep their play-off hopes alive towards the business end of the New Zealand Football Championship.
The Aucklanders slipped back to second place while the Bay fell back one more to fourth spot.
Auckland head coach Paul Posa told SportToday: ``I don't think even the the Bay would have complained if the scoreline was 3-nil.'
``I believe my boys deserved more goals but that's football,' Posa said.
His Bay counterpart, Jonathan Gould, boiled it down to an underpressure goalkeeper, Ross Nicholson, ``not in the best state of his life (but he) stood up at the back of the net and kept his team in the game'.
``They've got mentally very, very good players who came today, under the kosh, in fifth place, and coped with it.'
``In the first half we got into decent areas without creating anything. In the second half - five (goals).
``The lads gave everything. They could against a very, very mentally strong side.'
Outplayed first half? Gould preferred ``they out-experienced us'.
Perhaps Auckland goalkeeper Ross Nicholson, 33, summed it up best: ``I suppose we both had chances but it was about who wanted it most. We were more hungry than them.'
It was almost as if the Bay were in damage control mode in the first 46 minutes (one minute extra time) as Aucklanders Alex Feneridis, Paul Urlovic, Matt Williams and Chad Coombes peppered the goalmouth with crisp shots.
The hosts made their first decent cross in the 13th minute before teenage midfielder Andrew Abba carved his way through the middle in the 31st minute to unload to Graham Fyfe on the right flank, who in turn flicked it to rightback Chris Davies but the cross lacked juice.
Without doubt roving defender Davies and Abba had a blinder.
Bay gloveman Mitchell O'Brien denied Urlovich a minute later but could nothing 60 seconds later when Vicelich, rubbing his head from an aerial collison, latched on to Korean midfielder Ki-Hyung Lee's curler to push it past the keeper for the only goal.
In the 38th minute counterattack, Abba crossed in front of the face of the goalmouth but fellow midfielder Greig Henslee's lift-off blast caught Vicelich's back to sail over the crossbar.
Bay appeals for a hand-ball penalty a minute later with head coach Gould screaming to referee Jamie Cross: ``Everyone saw that!' But it fell on deaf ears.
Father Bobby Gould also popped out of the reserve bench like a yo-yo too and together they applied pressure on the fourth official, who threatened to banish them from their sideline perch.
In the 44th minute, Lee's 45m speculator clipped the crossbar, ricocheting almost perpendicular to the ground.
The crowd held their breath as striker Milos Nikolic charged in but the bounce beat his attempted header and Bluewater Stadium sighed in relief as O'Brien recovered.
The second spell saw the Aucklanders kept mounting the pressure and Bay's Korean midfielder, Woo Jae Kim, Scotsman Graham Fyfe, and Englishman Henslee started to crank up the engine room. In the first half it seemed as if Moses had created a Red Sea gulf.
Referee Jamie Cross enigmatically flashed a dimunitive Abba a yellow card in the 55th in the other end, deeming him to have taken a dive while sandwiched between two lanky defenders. By then the Bluewater crowd had started jeering Cross for awarding free-kicks to the Bay.
Keeper Nicholson, in the 62nd minute, denied centreback Daniel Kirkup, who played his heart out and sporadically foraged up front in search of an equaliser.
David Gearey was thrust up front for skipper Chris McIvor but the substitute, in the 69th, couldn't convert a Fyfe flick into a goal from inside the 18m box.
Urlovic missed a sitter from 12m in the 73rd as the Bay defence looked lethargic. Kim's 35m freekick from an acute angle soon after beat keeper Nicholson but shaved over the crossbar.
The heart-stopper came in the 82nd minute when a speedy Abba pounced on a ball that Aucklanders defenders let bounce but the Solomon Island schoolboy's effort to flick the ball over the head of an advancing Nicholson failed to find the net.
Four minutes of extra time was added. Kirkup beckoned everyone, including keeper O'Brien, for the last throw of the dice from a cornerkick but it was too little too late.
Canterbury United match tomorrow at English Park, Christchurch?
Gould said: ``Must win. This is why I have an issue with playing two games in three days. We've got a spare weekend coming up before we play Otago. It doesn't make sense because it could have been spread out.'
ANENDRA SINGH
``Let's give them heaps, boys,' an Auckland City player said as he trudged through the corridor of the changing rooms below the Bluewater Stadium, in Napier, last night.
As they walked past the Hawke's Bay United door the victorious visitors cleared their lungs before rubbing it in by breaking into
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