Three teams seal spots in playoffs
Three of the semifinalists have been found in the national men’s football league.
Yesteday, Auckland City beat Hawke’s Bay United, Team Wellington beat Southern United, and Eastern Suburbs beat Tasman United, and they now can all start planning for the playoffs at the end of March.
They will probablly be joined there by Canterbury United, who only need one more win to be sure of the fourth spot after beating the Wellington Phoenix reserves in the day’s other game.
Eastern Suburbs were the stronger side in the first half at a wet Bill McKinlay Park and went ahead early on in the second, when Michael Built’s shot from distance was judged to have ricocheted off the crossbar and crossed the line, though television replays suggested it hadn’t.
Tasman had a golden chance to equalise on the hour mark, when Suburbs keeper Louie Caunter parried Jordan Yong’s shot into the path of Maksym Kowal, who didn’t know a lot about it as it hit him and sailed ˘over the bar.
Tristan Prattley doubled Suburbs’ lead with quarter of an hour to play and substitute Max Mata struck late to secure Suburbs a place in the semifinals.
Tasman need a miracle to erase their six-point deficit to Canterbury.
Tasman now need a miracle if they are to close the six-point gap between themselves and fourth-placed Canterbury.
Earlier, Tasman would have been ecstatic as the Wellington Phoenix reserves took 2-0 and 3-1 leads over Canterbury, and appeared on track for what would have been a helpful win.
But after Willem Ebbinge scored his second and their third, five minutes into the second half, the hosts collapsed at David Farrington Park in Wellington, and Canterbury came storming back to win 5-3.
Captain Gary Ogilvie got two of them, including the penalty that made it 3-2, and was joined by George King, Stephen Hoyle who got the equaliser ˘on the hour mark - and Tom Schwarz ˘who got the go-ahead goal with 10 minutes to play. ˘Logan Rogerson had put the WeeNix 1-0 up in the first minute. Auckland City had been wary of their trip to Napier to play Hawke’s Bay United, having lost at Bluewater Stadium last season, but they were largely untroubled as they came away with a 3-0 win to remain at the top of the table.
Fullback Alfie Rogers put them in front in the 23rd minute, and once he was joined on the scoresheet by Solomon Islands forward Micah Lea’alafa six minutes later, the result looked a foregone conclusion.
Callum McCowatt added a third just after the hour mark to put any hopes of a comeback to bed and end Hawke’s Bay’s fiveyear streak of making the playoffs.
Team Wellington remain hot on the heels of City at the top of the table, but had to work hard to beat Southern United 3-1 at Sunnyvale Park in Dunedin.
It was Jack-Henry Sinclair who got the crucial goal, in the 58th minute, and recent signing Ross Allen then scored his third since joining 10 minutes later to seal the win, and keep Team Wellington one point behind City.