City Rebuff Resurgent Wellington To Retain Lead
Story by Jeremy Ruane

Reigning NZ Football Championship title-holders Auckland City scored a solid 3-1 win over Team Wellington at Kiwitea Street on January 24, rebuffing a strong challenge from the resurgent visitors to retain their lead on goal difference in the 2009-10 competition.

Auckland began brightly, with Daniel Koprivcic breaking into the penalty area on the right in the third minute. Jamie Duncan was swiftly side-stepped before the striker rolled the ball back into the path of Matt Williams, who blazed over from twenty yards.

Wellington quickly got a foothold in the game, but found themselves behind in the eleventh minute. Ki Hyung Lee played the ball to Williams, whose angled ball in behind the visitors’ defence was left by Wellington’s rearguard, anticipating that it would go out of play.

Jason Hayne had other ideas, however, dashing onto the ball and thrashing it across James Bannatyne into the far corner of the net from an acute angle.

The visitors looked to get back into the match straight from the resumption, with Bryan Little letting fly from twenty-five yards to no avail. Four minutes later, a corner from the same player was pawed out from underneath his crossbar by Jacob Spoonley, which sparked a City counter-attack.

Lee and Williams combined to release Ian Hogg on the overlap down the left. He played the ball inside to Chad Coombes, whose shot was blocked, as was the attempt to turn home the rebound by Hogg. Bannatyne tipped this skywards, and it required a headed clearance by Duncan to make sure the danger was averted, with Hayne hovering in close attendance.

Coombes had one of those games when the red mist occasionally obscured his vision, as evidenced by two incidents just shy of the half-hour mark. In the first, he chased after a through ball by Ivan Vicelich which Trent Watson was always favourite to win, and ended up making the defender the meat in a sandwich with the fast-approaching figure of Bannatyne, who came close to clashing heads with his team-mate as a result.

The goalkeeper was far from amused - downright furious, in fact - with the perpetrator of the incident, yet he it was who incurred the wrath of referee Mirko Benischke as a result - a tad harshly, from this writer’s vantage point.

Two minutes later, Coombes lunged after a ball which Cole Peverley was diving to head clear. A mere split-second was all there was between boot avoiding skull and one of those sickening incidents you never wish to see on a football pitch - it really was that close.

Just after the half-hour mark, a bizarre back-heel in midfield by Lee presented the ball to Chris Bale, who buccaneered downfield before battering a terrific twenty-five yarder towards the far corner of City’s net. Spoonley launched himself to his left and made a fine full length fingertip save, which contrasted starkly with his next involvement in the match!

The goalkeeper fielded a back-pass from Vicelich, with time aplenty in which to clear his lines. Greg Draper was hovering in the general vicinity, and suddenly swooped on the unsuspecting goalkeeper, who was caught in possession by the in-form striker, and duly punished - the sight of Spoonley lying prostrate as the scorer celebrated his sixth goal in three games was a delightful one as far as Wellington was concerned.

City responded swiftly to this setback, although should never have been awarded the 37th minute free-kick Coombes somehow eked out of referee Benischke - Watson merely stepped in front of the Auckland striker to relieve him of possession, and made no contact with him at any time.

Thankfully, justice was served with Lee’s effort being charged down by Duncan, who took a moment to recover from the blow, but nowhere near as long as team-mate Michael Winsauer earlier in the match. He copped a shot from “The Cannon Shooter” at point blank range, and was still feeling the effects of it five minutes later!

The ricochet off Duncan flew away for a corner, which Lee took. It was cleared to the edge of the penalty area, where Coombes was lurking, and he promptly unleashed a twenty yarder which fizzed inches over the crossbar.

It was the last act of note in the half, but set the tone for the second spell, in which City was the more effective team in the opposition’s attacking third. Just four minutes into the half, James Pritchett played a ball down the right which Wellington’s defence again assumed would head out for a goal kick.

Coombes assumed otherwise, however, and Bannatyne found himself in no man’s land as a result of the striker’s anticipation. With Wellington’s ‘keeper stranded, Coombes played the ball back from the by-line, only to play it behind the incoming figure of half-time substitute Grant Young - a great chance spurned.

Unperturbed, Auckland pressed again two minutes later, Adam McGeorge combining with Young and Lee to play Coombes in through the inside-right channel. Again, the striker beat Bannatyne, this time with a shot, but his effort lacked accuracy.

Unlike the ball played forward by Vicelich in the 55th minute - it was a peach. So, too, the finish of Young, who got in behind the defence and found himself one-on-one with Bannatyne … Auckland, 2-1.

Wellington swiftly sought a riposte in the form of another equaliser, and should have realised it just three minutes later. Bryan Little found himself on the right wing, with Cole Peverley in support inside him.

The former City player linked with his team-mate, who clipped a gem of a cross to the far post where the unchallenged figure of Draper rose salmon-like to execute a downward header. It looked a goal for all money, but somehow the ball bounced the wrong side of the post, leaving the striker holding his head in disbelief.

The visitors were using the full width of the pitch in an effort to penetrate City’s miserly rearguard, but Vicelich and company rebuffed them at every turn. Even when Coombes finally tested the patience of referee Benischke once too often, the free-kick Andy Barron unleashed following the booking zoomed over Spoonley’s crossbar.

That 67th minute effort was followed two minutes later by yet another Auckland corner - they earned fifteen such set-piece opportunities throughout the match. This was by far the closest they came to scoring from one, however, Lee’s delivery picking out the head of Vicelich at the near post, with City’s captain unlucky to see his header hit the crossbar.

Back came Wellington, with a fierce drive from Barron requiring Spoonley to make two attempts to save it in the 73rd minute, six minutes before the City defence, via a mixture of wild lunges and more orthodox defensive work, denied Bale the chance to level matters from the edge of the penalty area.

Just prior to this, Bannatyne had got down well low to his left to keep out a shot on the turn from Young, after Hogg and Coombes had combined down the left. And ten minutes from time, the tallest player on the park - a big statement, given many of his team-mates can hardly be described as midgets! - showed great anticipation to thwart a pull-back from City substitute Adam Dickinson, after Pritchett had released him down the right.

With five minutes to go, Young was upended by Watson some twenty-five yards out from goal. Given Lee’s recent track record in recent weeks, there was no guarantee this free-kick would find the target, but find it it did, emphatically - a superbly struck set-piece which arrowed into the corner of the net beyond Bannatyne to finally break Wellington’s resistance, and assure Auckland of all three points.

They looked to add further to their lead twice in stoppage time, through Dickinson and Coombes, but a 3-1 win was a fitting outcome to a match in which Wellington had been confident of continuing on their winning way, only to come up against a team for whom winning has become a familiar habit over the course of the entire season to date.

Auckland: Spoonley; Pritchett, Vicelich, Uhlmann, Hogg; Williams (Dickinson, 65), Lee (booked, 89), McGeorge (booked, 80); Hayne (Morgan, 83), Koprivcic (Young, 46), Coombes (booked, 67)

Wellington: Bannatyne (booked, 26); Davies, Winsauer, Watson, Duncan; Barron, McDermott (Fifii, 67), Peverley (Keat, 75), Little; Draper, Bale

Referee: Mirko Benischke.