Soccer: Halves of contention

It was a game of two halves and the respective coaches' take on the match goes a fair way to lending credence to that cliched assessment.

In fairness, Bluewater Napier City Rovers could have gone to the changing rooms two goals down in their Central League soccer match against Petone but 90-plus minutes later they were celebrating a 2-1 victory.

The morose outlook from visiting coach Mark Foster was understandable after they led 1-0 at halftime on Park Island, playing into a stiff wind.

But the assertion of Rovers coach Grant Hastings was equally plausible, considering his troops suffered from a perennial problem this winter of not finding the net when it mattered most.

"I think we were never outplayed by them," Hastings summed up.

"They did put spells of pressure and possession on us but we've been more threatening than them," he said defiantly.

Hastings laboured on the point that his players were executing deft crosses but "not seeing them".

"That's what we spoke about at halftime, you know, just see your crosses."

He didn't think the hosts did anything drastically different in the second spell.

"We were good and creative in the first half as well but we were just not getting the finishing touches.

"I thought the final ball was better in the second half and we scored two goals but there should probably have been more."

The pokerface of Petone coach, Mark Foster, required no interpretation outside the opposition changing room.

"The game should have been over at halftime. That wind was very strong, playing into it, and the boys set it up really well," Foster lamented.

Petone, he felt, had defended with some passion but were equally adept in looking after the ball when they surged forward.

"So there were really three or four good chances we should have scored from there but we didn't take them."

Foster lamented a "totally different" Petone in the second half.

"We switched off for the first 10 to 15 minutes and paid the price."

The wind had died considerably in the latter stage of the game, too.

"It didn't surprise me that we played well into the wind in the first half because we're a good footballing side when we put our minds together to work for each other.

"We stopped doing that in the second half and stopped being an angle, forgetting to pass the ball, so that's the most disappointing part about it all."

Foster had emphasised to his youthful-looking players at halftime the urgency to tweak areas the Rovers could hurt them and not to bank on the wind too much.

"We just didn't do all that in the second half, end of story."

The Rovers' victory saw them retain the Gail Smith Memorial Trophy which the two teams put up for a challenge annually.

The late Smith was a stalwart of Petone who later moved to Napier where her daughter, Tracey, played for the Blues' women's team.

Yesterday, teenage Rovers striker Fane Morgan made the most of his injury layoff to score two goals although he had two other opportunities to claim a hat-trick.

"He'll learn from that but he got two goals from that very well so he's just got to keep going."

He lauded right back Bayley Chadderton on his starting debut and also right wing Jett Hogg Young for his first taste at the top winter level coming off the bench.

Teenager Chadderton made intelligent calls to move away to Blues claw way back to deny Petone the peripheral parts of the field on numerous occasions to offer passing options for his fellow Beefeaters when they were under pressure although captain Bill Robertson, at times, could have used him more rather than trying to force a pass through the busy traffic to cough up possession.

On the flip side, the young defender should have been much stronger on the ball but that, no doubt, will come with time.

"He's never been at this level before so we spoke about that at halftime ... so he got there in the second half and got a yellow [card]."

In the 11th minute, Chadderton wasn't quick enough to deny possession to Petone left wing Mitchell Blair who pushed the ball to Richard McLay.

The striker took the ball to the goal line before crossing it to right winger Jono Blair who calmly slotted it past a stranded Peta for a 1-0 lead against the run of play.

In the 29th minute, Jones hoofed a shot over the crossbar from point-blank range following a cornerkick melee.

Two minutes later, it was almost deja vu as Robertson gifted Petone attackers the ball in the danger zone but, fortunately for the Blues, the visitors didn't capitalise on the error.

In the 41st, Petone defensive midfielder Nick Edginton had a series of one-twos with Ben Dawson in the engine room to feed McLay in the box but the ensuing shot clipped the left upright to cruelly deflect back into play only for a Rovers defender to move the ball from harm's way as the Wellingtonians attempted to reload.

Morgan, in the 46th minute, asked Petone another question from a cornerkick when he poked a ball past New Zealand under-20 goalkeeper Daniel Clarke from the ensuing melee for the 1-1 equaliser.

The Hastings Boys' High School student was at it again in the 56th minute, almost pouncing on another ball but keeper Clarke's reflexes prevailed before rising to the occasion again a minute later.

In the 59th minute, Morgan found the net from the faintest of touches that brought a latent reaction of celebration as Petone defender Craig Alderdice and keeper Clarke slumped to the ground in despair as the ball skewed past the left upright for a 2-1 lead to the Rovers.

Not even the Bluewater Stadium faithful had realised the ball had snuck into the net. Fluke?

Maybe, but credit must go to the youngster for opening his body to pave the way for the ball from an oblique angle towards the goalmouth for a sliver of a chance with two players breathing down his neck.

In the 74th minute, Morgan flirted with a hat-trick after midfielder Rudi Bauerfeind flicked a ball through but the teenager's shot from inside the 18m box clipped the crossbar before ricocheting away.

In injury time, Morgan again had a great chance after Young put a ball through to Andy Bevin who pushed towards the goal line before adroitly putting a cross back diagonally to the teenager, whose ensuing shot sailed over the crossbar from inside the box in a fashion only defenders can.