Soccer: Waikato do it again to the city slickers

The hex Waikato FC have enjoyed over front-runners Auckland City continued in the New Zealand Football Championship yesterday.

City's first visit to Rotorua's International Stadium fell apart in the dying minutes as Waikato's Hindrich Hahn broke the 0-0 deadlock with his 92nd minute strike to hand his team their second odd goal win over the city-slickers in six weeks.

Elsewhere, Waitakere United, for once, had the last say in coming back from 1-2 to beat Hawkes Bay United 3-2 at Trusts Stadium despite playing the last 48 minutes with 10 players.

YoungHeart Manawatu, making the most of home advantage, beat Canterbury United 1-0 in the match of the day to claw back to within three points of Auckland City.

It was a day City coach Allan Jones will be happy to forget.

Dropping their third game of the season was bad enough but the hurt did not end there.

They lost ace goal-grabber and runaway golden boot leader Keryn Jordan to a suspected shin injury after just 16 minutes.

His replacement Chad Coombes had two late chances to put City ahead. He headed his first attempt in stoppage time wide and seconds later blasted wide.

To add to his frustration, Coombes was then sent off following his 91st minute challenge on Danny Donegan whose tackle on Jordan had ended his game.

Hahn then ensured it would be a sombre trip home for City when he turned well and fired home a great shot from the edge of the penalty area.

In a tight affair at The Arena, Manawatu took the lead after 55 minutes and held on to see off Canterbury who found Hayden Englefield, in for Michael Utting in the Manawatu goal, too good.

The only goal came when Darren Cheriton played a one-two with Campbell Banks and took the return before sliding home.

Waitakere showed plenty of bottle to get up against the odds. They could have done with some of the same early on as they handed the initiative to the visitors.

Shannon Cole was harshly booked by referee Kevin Stoltenkamp after just 48s. Bad enough, but then it became stupid when he left Stoltenkamp with no option to send him in the 43rd minute for a second silly challenge.

In between times, Stoltenkamp booked another five as he and the match officials took centre stage.

There was also some scoring with Hone Fowler heading home a Cole corner for the 19th minute lead.

The visitors got back to 1-1 in the 32nd minute when they broke quickly, played the ball to Dean Johnston who looked up, decided against having a shot and played the ball sweetly to Jason Hayne who fired home.

Nine minutes into the second half, with United caught short, Martin Akers played the ball in and Sam Jenkins had an easy shot for the lead.

Dean Storey, one of the better performers for the battling home side, set up Stu Hogg for the 79th minute equaliser.

Given their recent record of handing their opponents late gifts, the faithful held their collective breaths.

They should not have worried as Hogg got deep before playing in to halftime substitute Daniel Ellensohn who pushed a soft shot away from goalkeeper Scott Dunn.

In Dunedin, Team Wellington held on to score their fourth win of the season with a 2-1 win over Otago United. David Johnson gave Wellington their 12th minute lead which Bryan Little increased in gthe 76th minute. Francesco Caruso grabbed a late consolation for the home side.