Waitakere kept alive their hopes of topping the New Zealand Football Championship at the end of the regular season by beating Waikato 2-0 in a muddling encounter at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.
The win moves them within three points of leaders Auckland City, who play Hawkes Bay Unitedat Napier today. Waitakere still have a game in hand.
A strong northwesterly wind made football difficult on the lush outer oval at North Harbour that presented a surface in direct contrast to the bonehard grounds on which most of the season has been played.
Both teams finished the hard-fought encounter with 10 men. In the 69th minute Waitakere's Hoani Edwards, who had come on as a substitute, was shown a red card for a two-footed tackle on Matt Friel.
With five minutes to go Waikato's Joe Simpkins reacted physically to a tackle by Paul Seaman and was off with his second yellow. Seaman also received a yellow.
Playing into the wind in the first half, Waikato dominated possession as Waitakere struggled to regroup following the late defection of big defender Danny Hay with a hamstring problem in the warm-up.
The visitors kept the ball on the ground away from the wind and the big defenders but despite some skilful play by teenager Chris Woods and Michael Gwyther, they couldn't finish the job.
Two of the best chances came from freekicks on the edge of the penalty area, conceded by Neil Emblen with last-ditch tackles. But the shots on goal went wide.
The game was decided in a six-minute spell just before halftime. In the 40th minute Stanley Waita played a loose pass in midfield, Chris Bale intercepted the ball and from 30m on the angle powered a drive that took a slight deflection and rifled into the corner of the Waikato goal.
Worse was to follow for the visitors. As Waitakere poured forward in time added on, Emblen headed the ball across the Waikato goal where a defender's attempted clearance only helped it into his own net.
The second spell saw Waitakere guilty of wasting several chances.
"I'm pleased that we got three points and won by two goals," said Waitakere coach Chris Milicich. "Losing Danny with a slight hamstring strain before the start disrupted us for 15 or 20 minutes."
