Vale one crucial step closer

Joachim RandeIt would be presumptuous to assume the job's done.
For the record, Cru Bar Maycenvale United aren't but they should take heart from their 3-0 win over Upper Hutt City on Saturday.
The first-leg victory over the Capital City League champions has taken the Lotto Federation League champions from Hastings a crucial step closer to securing a berth in next season's premier winter league.
It will bring joy to Vale fans who have endured back-to-back seasons of disappointment after the men in orange stumbled twice in previous campaigns.
No doubt, an inaudible voice in the head, perhaps wisely, suggests not to get too carried away just yet.
Maycenvale will play Upper Hutt in Wellington this Saturday and, barring any upsets, will play further home-and-away matches against Central League woodenspooners Team Taranaki (Vale's home September 18 and away September 25) although rumours were rife that Taranaki were facing automatic relegation.
Naki treasurer Mike Van Beers told SportToday they understood the games were still on.
Frankly, Vale will have to lose the plot dramatically to lose mathematically to Upper Hutt on aggregate although Taranaki remain in uncharted waters.
Reflecting on Saturday's emphatic display at Akina Park, coach Bill Robertson told SportToday the win provided much-needed impetus to progress to the next stage of the play-offs.
"The clean sheet's just as important as the three goals," said Robertson, adamant his troops would approach the away match like any other.
"We'll treat it as a separate game and try to win because there's nothing for us in sitting back." A smarting Upper Hutt coach, Ian Porteous, echoed similar sentiments, adding they couldn't sit on their laurels.
"We've got to look for that early goal and maybe put a little bit of doubt in their minds.
"By no means will we be out of it.
"Maycenvale will certainly know they've been in a game," the Scotsman, a former Aberdeen and Kilmarnock striker, warned.
A totally out of character Akina Park offered a freshly mown surface with a firm underfoot, conducive to a crisp-passing game.
The stiff, bone-chilling southerlies were inhibiting but played into the hands of the hosts, who played with its help in the first 45 minutes then found sympathy when it subsided midway through the second half.
Both sides gambled with injuries - midfield playmaker Chris Greatholder didn't pass the warm-up test after picking an injury in Thursday night's training while striker Leon Birnie didn't look comfortable but put some deft touches to set up two goals for Vale before Robertson substituted him.
Upper Hutt, bereft of ideas in the first half, found themselves 2-0 at the breather and minus pivotal centreback Andrew Setefano (hamstrung), of Samoa, in the 39th minute.
Solomon Islander Joachim Rande struck in the ninth minute after right wing Daniel Ball tackled and took the ball off leftback Richard Henderson at the half way mark close to the sideline.
Ball ran his line and crossed to the front post for Rande to tap it past goalkeeper Michael Howells.
The visitors seemed to lack structure, squandering possession from unforced errors and opting to play down the middle rather than spreading the ball to the wings.
In the 37th minute, Rande again featured, dummying rightback Adam Chandler's throw in before turning and picking up the ensuing flick from Birnie before switching the ball to Ryan Martin on the left wing.
"Riser" to the initiated and mistakenly called Brendan Razos in SportToday last week, Martin worked his way into the 18m box and put a crisp ground ball past keeper Howells to make it 2-0.
In the 51st minute, Ball floated a cross into the wind and Birnie nodded it before a screaming keeper could get his hands on it. Rande pounced on the ball and jabbed a loopy shot into the open goal.
Said Robertson: "Joachim was fantastic today and his work rate was impressive with his attributes of pace and power.
"Some of their defenders couldn't handle it."
Upper Hutt didn't start firing, albeit with through balls in the middle, until Porteous injected Andy Le Prou to stoke the engine room in the second spell.
Nevertheless, Vale keeper Shaun Peta made some breathtaking saves while former All White Jonathon Taylor and fellow centreback Brenda Adema made some goal-saving tackles as Chandler and leftback Phil Dol fed off the spills.
Ben Simons, filling the big boots of Greatholder, delivered with aplomb.
Explained Porteous: "We were a little na� too and played into Maycenvale's hands a little bit ... and their big centre half [Simons] loved it, so we need to learn from that."
He felt the goals were soft and the wind complicated things but emphasised his troops needed to adapt.
"We also can't blame the ball, we can't blame the ref but we can only blame ourselves.
"We needed a goal and their third goal was like a kick in the bollocks," said Porteous, thinking Vale would take their foot off the pedal in the second half to employ the dreaded bunker mentality.
No doubt, the hosts stuck to the edict that the best form of defence is attack.