But what happened two minutes later perhaps signalled the rot was setting in.
Wellington United's Ali Nazari was livid after the ref awarded a freekick to the hosts in the penalty box when Rovers goalkeeper Jonty Underhill yanked the striker from behind while he was shielding the ball.
Wellington coach Graham Little lost his rag, screaming at referee's assistant Gareth Sheehan: "Why don't you lift your flag up?"
After the game, Little said if the officials had issued a yellow card in the first place at that stage the game probably wouldn't have deteriorated.
"I don't want to comment on the referees, mate, because I'll get pinged more than I usually do so it's a hard one with the referee."
Andy Bevin pushed the ball past Wellington goalkeeper Josh Columbus 8m not far from in front of the far post to put Rovers 1-0 ahead in the 29th minute after a cross from the left flank from fellow striker Danny Wilson, who had a subdued game after his five-goal feat against Wainuiomata the previous Sunday in the Chatham Cup 7-0 victory.
Four minutes later centre back Regan Cameron extended the lead to 2-0 from a header following a freekick - which also drew howls of protest from the Wellington players and their bench - from an oblique angle on the right flank.
In the 61st minute the ref ran up to the dog box to brief coach Little, pointing and saying: "I'm getting a little frustrated with 'Jimmy', there."
The caution came amid heckles from the opposition bench to "share the yellow cards around a little, ref" after substitute Mohammed Aided collected one for a tackle on Rovers captain Bill Robertson although the latter was lucky not to also pick one up for retaliating.
In the 77th minute, defender Jake Harris collected a straight red card from the referee for yanking down a charging Bevin on the top edge of the box, denying him a goal-scoring opportunity.
In the 83rd minute substitute midfielder Chris Arceo picked up a yellow card for back chat as chairman Mumby sardonically clapped from the dugout before Riley ran across to evict him.
A couple of minutes later Arceo had a brain explosion, recklessly tackling Robertson to trigger off a player scuffle.
That left Wellington with nine players but for a minute after they were down to eight as Nazari hobbled off before gingerly running back on.
Little said: "Deservedly so with No 7 [Arceo] because it was a ridiculous tackle, you know ... he's an experienced guy and he should never have lunged out.
"You should try to keep your mouths shut on the sidelines, too, because that's my job not the chairman's job."
Little had approached the ref at halftime to ask him why he had awarded a freekick that led to the second goal when he felt his player had won the ball fairly.
"His interpretation is he went in too strong but in my eyes he won the ball.
"If you win the ball, you win the ball never mind how hard you go in," he said.
Little felt his young charges needed to have a bit of mongrel in them, especially as bottom dwellers.
"We had like five one-on-ones today and created opportunities. I'm delighted because I told the boys if we play that from now we'll pick up points eventually."
Despite the skirmishes, Hastings felt nothing should detract from the Rovers' well-deserved three points, on the platform of passing and creating opportunities.
An under-threat Underhill made some "housekeeping saves rather than anything spectacular in the whole match".
"Yes, other things happen that take away from it but I don't focus on what other people are doing but what we're doing so we've done pretty well today."
Underhill's incident, he felt, wasn't the turning point.
"That wasn't the start of it at all. I think they lost composure and that second sending off for them ... I just think he lost the plot, didn't he?
"He's just come off the bench. He's just got booked for chipping away at the referee and then he's made a flipping mad challenge like that so ...," he said, adding the visitors were guilty of dangling a lazy leg in tackles from the kick off.
"We want it to be a physical game because it is one but if you're going to be naughty and [commit] silly indiscretions then you're going to get pinged."
Hastings reminded his keeper at halftime that if he was harbouring ambitions of becoming a striker than he most certainly wouldn't have put him in goal.
