Football
Wairarapa United progressed to the next round of New Zealand football's premier knockout trophy, the Chatham Cup, after defeating Wellington United 2-1 at Howard Booth Park on Sunday.
In contrast to the almost perfect playing conditions, the home side made heavy weather of putting away modest opposition whom they had comprehensively defeated at Central League level just weeks ago.
For all their possession and better lead-up play, they either lacked real penetration into the Wellington penalty area or squandered too many chances in sight of goal.
The United treatment table worked miracles leading up to the game as all those under a fitness cloud, with the exception of Esava Naqueleca, either started the game or were on the substitutes bench.
Coach Phil Keinzley opted to start Josh Margetts at fullback in place of Chilean Jorge De La Torre, with skipper Adam Cowan covering for the injured Naqueleca by reverting to centre back alongside Waisake Sabatu.
The game got off to a scrappy start which unfortunately paved the way for much of what was to follow later in the second half. The home side finally settled, however, with Aaron Spierling, Miroslav Tvaroh and Nathan Cooksley bossing midfield, quickly breaking up the visitors' moves and starting their own. A mixture of short and longer passes behind the Wellington fullbacks for wide men George Jermy and Dale Higham to run on to created openings for the pacy Seule Soromon to exploit.
United deservedly took a 1-0 lead after 15 minutes when Wellington keeper Jamie Mackay failed to gather a corner, leaving Waisake Sabatu to head home powerfully. This lead quickly doubled when Cooksley hassled the Wellington keeper into another fumble. Soromon was on hand to slot home from 10m and suddenly United were out to a 2-0 lead.
The home side took command for the remainder of the half but, for all their dominance, failed to increase the lead.
Soromon in particular missed several chances by shooting wide or lobbing the ball over the crossbar.
The second half failed to reach any great heights.
United continued to press, opportunities were created and not taken, but as the half wore on their passing game became less fluid, lacking continuity.
Stringing together a sequence of passes became increasingly difficult to achieve.
Things became more disjointed after coach Keinzley substituted the influential Tvaroh midway through the half, possibly as a result of the midfielder treading a bit of a tightrope after collecting another yellow card.
With Tvaroh gone, and despite the continued graft of Cooksley and Spierling plus Jermy dropping into centre midfield to cover for Tvaroh, Wellington came increasingly into the game and halved the deficit with 15 minutes left on the clock, converting a spot kick after Spierling was judged to have fouled an opponent in the box.
Wellington sniffed a chance of grabbing an unlikely and barely deserved equaliser, pressing forward with more urgency, but it was not to be, United seeing out time without any real threats on their goal.
For United, skipper Cowan was in commanding form at the heart of the defence while Spierling and Cooksley worked tirelessly in midfield and Soromon posed a threat with his speed against a vulnerable Wellington back four.
This was a game the home side could, and should, have won by a comfortable margin but they failed to convert chances into goals, didn't fully exploit an opposition keeper suspect under the high ball and didn't take advantage of an outpaced Wellington defence.
Elsewhere in the first round of the Chatham Cup, White Swan Greytown were soundly beaten 10-4 at home by Brooklyn Northern United while in Capital 2 Douglas Villa's game 2 was postponed.
In Capital 3, Gardner Electrical Masterton suffered a 4-0 home defeat at the hands Waterside Karori.
The surprise result however was Wairarapa United seconds 4-4 draw against lowly Petone, a result which sees United drop to second on the table behind Victoria University.