Football: Premiership match tests Cup organisers

Phoenix goalkeeper Lewis Italiano clears under pressure from a Wanderers attacker. Photo / Sharon Teh-Hall

Sunday's exhibition match at Toll Stadium turned out to be a successful one for organisers and for Wanderers SC as they beat Wellington Phoenix Reserves 2-1.

It was Wanderers first back-to-back win of the season and pushed them into third place in the ASB Premiership, one point ahead of Wellington.

The Wanderers took the lead early in the first spell with an Andre de Jong strike before Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi doubled their lead midway through the second spell.

In the 80th minute, Jason Hicks' successful dead ball strike saw the Phoenix lift their tempo and provided an exciting finish for the crowd.

"The goal made the last 10 or 15 minutes quite interesting and things got a bit tetchy, but the Wanderers definitely deserved to win, they played the better football I think," Whangarei organiser Dave Alabaster said.

The Northern Football Federation development officer said the match drew almost 1000 people, the biggest crowd he had seen at a football match since a women's international a couple of years ago.

"It was a great day in terms of the football and in terms of the crowd - to get nearly 1000 people there was a pretty good effort, you never quite know what to expect up here - especially on a holiday weekend," he said.

The curtain raiser featured some of the top football players in Northland, with North Force holding a trial match. The result was immaterial but it was good for the players to have something to focus their training on with their season scheduled to start at the end of March.

The ASB Premiership match was a good warm-up for the Whangarei organisers of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup games to be held in the city at the end of May.

"We're gearing up for that at the moment, with a lot of meetings happening and volunteers being interviewed so we're heading into the final phase of that and of course we're only a week or two away from the draw on February 10 and then we'll know which matches we'll have in Whangarei," Alabaster said.