Football: Ngongotaha keep hopes alive

Josh O'Sullivan, pictured earlier this season, scored one of three goals for the Ngongotaha Villagers on the weekend.

Another win at the weekend has kept Ngongotaha's fight for the WaiBOP Premiership title alive.

Ngongotaha battled to a 3-2 win over Old Blues in Tauranga to stay in touch with leaders Cambridge.

The match was tight but the Villagers had enough of a cutting edge up front to prevail. The usual suspects - Josh O'Sullivan, Mitch Miller and Luke Barker - scored the goals for Ngongotaha after the match had been level at 1-1 at the break.

Ngongotaha still trail Cambridge by seven points with two games in hand.

Cambridge beat Rotorua United 4-0 at John Kerkhof to move a small step closer to the title and the Northern Regional Football League playoff that comes with it. United, who only fielded the minimum 11 players, initially proved difficult to break down, with Cambridge having only a Jason Szabo goal to show for their first half efforts. The visitors were finally done for the day when Cambridge were awarded a second half penalty, which the spritely Szabo finished off after having his initial shot saved. Tom Wouterson scored twice in the final 20 minutes to pad out Cambridge's advantage.

Third-placed Melville United were forced to cool their heels after their match in Matamata was called off late due to a gluggy Matamata Domain surface. They now sit six points behind Ngongotaha, having played the same amount of matches.

SGS Papamoa leaped over Old Blues into fourth thanks to their superior goal difference. Their match at Gordon Spratt Park against lowly Katikati didn't start well, with the visitors going ahead inside the first minute, but Papamoa eventually ran out 3-2 victors. Liam Hunt, Daniel Hight and Mehdi El Barakat scored for Papamoa while the Stollery boys, Troy and Dane, replied for Katikati.

Otumoetai eased their relegation fears with a 2-0 win over Tauranga Boys College at Southey Field. Matt Collins fired Otumoetai ahead early on, before a Daniel Miller goal secured the win near the end in a match the students had much the better of.

The other Premiership match saw last placed Tauranga City United hold Waikato Unicol to a 3-3 draw and in the process move ahead of Tauranga Boys on goal difference. Unicol were ahead 2-0 at the break and seemingly in control but a stirring second half effort from Tauranga saw them grab a share of the points.

West Hamilton is now within touching distance of promotion at the top of the WaiBOP Championship after a 4-0 win over Ngongotaha reserves. They scored twice in each half, through a Rory Kerr-Bell brace, Alex Whitehead and Nikali Finlay, and now sit five points clear of third placed Claudelands Rovers, with the top two going up.

Kawerau are second, three points behind West Hamilton and with a game in hand, after Old Blues reserves defaulted their match at Tarawera Park.

The top two still have to play each other twice, with the first of those encounters at Kawerau this weekend.