Football: Ngongotaha aim to open up gap

Luke Barker is expected to return for Ngongotaha AFC after missing last week's game. Photo / File

Ngongotaha AFC have an opportunity to put a reasonable gap between themselves and the bottom four teams in the Northern Region Football League second division.

Sitting in eighth place the Villagers travel to Auckland tomorrow to take on ninth-placed Te Atatu AFC, who are two points below them.

"We've been pretty solid away from home, so let's hope we can keep it up this weekend," said manager Stephen Towers.

When the two sides met at Stembridge Rd early in the season, it was the Aucklanders who went home happy, scoring a 3-0 win.

"It was our second game of the season and we were still finding our feet. I think we'll be more than a match for them this time. We know what to expect from the Northern League now, more than what we did when we first met them."

As with many games this season, Towers said Ngongotaha had enough chances to win that game, but simply didn't take them.

There are signs that that problem may be being solved with Ngongotaha scoring 11 goals in their last two games - a 5-1 Chatham Cup win over Beachlands Maraetai and a 6-2 victory over Onehunga-Mangere.

The win over Onehunga-Mangere was the Villagers' first at home in the Northern League, although they have two away victories to their name.

"We've dominated games and come away with nothing and the [first] Te Atatu game was that again - we gave a good account of ourselves and came away with nothing. Hopefully now we start getting the wins that we need."

Luke Barker missed last Saturday's game, but is expected to be fit again for tomorrow's match, and there were no further injury issues.

Cormac Waller who put in a man-of-the-match performance in his debut last week, is part of this week's squad.

■ In the WaiBOP Premiership, Rotorua Utd will play West Hamilton in Hamilton. It is their second trip to the city in two weekends, following a 1-all draw with Melville last Saturday.