Football: Auckland City edge Hawke's Bay

Emiliano Tade scored for Auckland City. Photo / Getty Images

Defending ASB Premiership champions Auckland City FC sit top of the new season standings after seeing off the challenge of Hawke's Bay United with a 3-2 win at Kiwitea Street on Sunday.

The home team, playing their second match of the 2014-15 competition after last weekend's rescheduled round four win over Southern United, were forced to come from behind to get the three points after Saul Halpin gave the visitors a seventh minute lead.

That advantage lasted until Harry Morton turned an Emiliano Tade cross into his own net mid-way through the first period.

Auckland City striker Fabrizio Tavano struck his maiden ASB Premiership goal for the club in first half stoppage time to push the champions ahead and Tade scored his second goal in as many weeks 20 minutes after the restart to provide a 3-1 cushion.

Sean Lovemore, a member of Auckland City's O-League squad last year, pulled a goal back with 13 minutes remaining and Auckland survived a real scare when Hawke's Bay substitute Fane Morgan missed a golden opportunity through one-on-one with Tamati Williams in the last five minutes.

Auckland City coach Ramon Tribulietx said while the team were effective for periods of the game, the most important product of the effort was the three points in the bank.

"We played well and we did what we had to do to win the game," Tribulietx said.

"There were some very good patches of play with the ball and the best thing is we got the result.

"The last 10 minutes were a little bit difficult and they fought back but overall we need to understand and read the kind of game we've got in front of us and see which things we have to do especially with the ball - because we had the ball for the most of the game."

Also on Sunday, a late penalty was enough to give Team Wellington the bragging rights as they emerged 2-1 victors over cross-town rivals, the Wellington Phoenix.

Just before the half hour mark, the Phoenix found the goal they were looking for as Tyler Boyd beat Adam Cowan on the left wing before cutting inside and squeezing his shot inside the left post albeit slightly deflected.

The goal seemed to wake Team Wellington up as they began to regain the ascendancy in midfield to create some good chances of their own.

They didn't have to wait long for their equaliser as Luis Corrales brought the ball down in the box before swivelling and hitting his shot past goalkeeper Oliver Sail and into the bottom left corner to make it 1-1 going into the halftime break.

Both teams came out searching for the killer blow in the second half but the windy conditions limited both sides to just a few half chances each until the turning point of the match came inside the final 10 minutes.

After having just had a strong penalty claim turned down for a handball minutes earlier, Team Wellington substitute Michael Gwyther was pushed in the box by the 16-year-old James McGarry leaving referee Peter O'Leary to point to the spot.

Seasoned campaigner Cole Peverley stepped up and made no mistake as he drilled the ball into the bottom right corner.

Just two minutes later, Phoenix midfielder Alex Rufer was sent for an early shower after receiving his second yellow card of the afternoon for a bad challenge on Sean Morris, leaving Team Wellington with an extra man for the final few minutes to secure the win.