Suburbs run rampant

Eastern Suburbs continued their strong start to 2019 in the national men’s football league on Saturday, handing Canterbury United their worst loss in almost a decade.

They scored all their goals in the 5-1 win in the second half, recovering well after a George King tap-in against the run of play left them trailing at the break.

The Danny Hay-coached side have scored five goals or more in all three of their matches this year, and are the most prolific side, averaging 2.8 goals per game.

Andre de Jong netted twice to put his side in front, while Michael Built, Dom Wooldridge and Callum McCowatt also scored as Suburbs ran rampant.

Next up for Suburbs are defending champions Auckland City, who haven’t lost on the field in the league since the opening round of last season (their one loss since came when they were found to have fielded an ineligible player in a match at the end of 2017).

City made it 11 wins on the trot this season yesterday, when they beat Hawke’s Bay United 4-1 at Bluewater Stadium, thanks to goals from Fabrizio Tavano, Micah Lea’alafa, Jordan Vale, and David Browne, with Sam Mason-Smith scoring for the hosts.

Team Wellington thought they’d snatched three points against Tasman United in Blenheim

yesterday, when Angus Kilkolly put them up 2-1 in the third minute of stoppage time, shortly after Tasman defender Joseph Ellull was sent off, only for Ahmed Othman to score his second equaliser of the afternoon to make it 2-2.

Despite dropping points, Canterbury and Wellington are both comfortably in the top four, as there is a five-point buffer back to Hamilton Wanderers, who have almost fallen out of the playoff race, losing all three of their matches so far this year.