Soccer: Central get the points but have to work hard first

By Terry Maddaford

What a difference half a North Island soccer league season makes.

In yesterday's first series of second-round matches, only leaders Central repeated their first-round victory. But it was not easy as Manawatu, who went down 0-6 in the first round, held them to 1-2 this time.

It was a crucial win for Central, who now face matches against Western Suburbs (away), Lower Hutt City (away) and Napier City Rovers (home) without their five All Whites.

Mark Elrick, one who will be missing until early August, hit home a 35m freekick to give Central a halftime lead. Steve Lockhead grabbed a 75th-minute equaliser but Jeff Keskic had the last say with his 85th-minute winner.

It was a game played in good spirit in front of one of the bigger crowds of the season, with Wellington referee Steve Sargent contributing to a flowing exhibition.

That was a far cry from two games in Auckland in which Manawatu referees Dave Lawrie and Simon Roebuck whistled the life out of their games and flashed red and yellow cards with monotonous regularity.

In between these disruptions, Mt Wellington helped themselves to a 1-0 win over North Shore and Napier beat Metro 2-0 to move into second place.

Earlier in the season North Shore had beaten Mt Wellington 4-0 and Metro edged Napier 2-1.

Lawrie was in the thick of it from the start at Phyllis St. He booked Metro's Stu Mair after 53s and a couple of minutes later awarded Napier a dubious penalty which Chris Jackson thumped home.

The scoring was completed in the 80th minute when Napier, reduced two minutes earlier to 10 men following Ross Goodacre's dismissal, broke quickly. Warren Gilbertson drew goalkeeper Grant Schofield before slotting a well-taken goal.

Jackson was the pick of the visiting side, while Jonathon Perry and Schofield showed out for Metro.

After a forgettable first half, Mt Wellington's Paul Bunbury worked a nice 47th minute interchange with Jeff Campbell to score the only goal of the match.

Dean Dodds, the most likely player in the North Shore attack, was then shown his second yellow card by Roebuck and sent off, robbing the visitors of any chance they might have entertained of taking at least a point.

With Nick Hyde marking Harry Ngata out of the game, North Shore had limited opportunities, with only Billy Harris showing much on attack and defence.

Waitakere City, with a couple of goals from in-form Cam Miller, continued their charge with a 6-2 romp over Melville.