Greeks grind out win to end Wanderers’ fairytale hopes
To steal Alfred Lord Tennyson’s quote and mutate it: “It is better to have competed and lost than to never have competed.”
That perhaps best describes Building King Havelock North Wanderers’ one-season love affair which is all but over after they lost 3-2 to Wellington Olympic in Hastings yesterday.
As goalkeeper Nick Hayward had said before the season-defining, penultimate Ultra Football Central League match at Guthrie Park, the Chris Greatholder-coached lads showed a lot of heart and endeavour but after flirtation some serious commitment is needed to keep the fire burning.
With the final match away against defending champions Advanced Electrical Western Suburbs in a fortnight, the Wanderers will find themselves back in the lower-tier Lotto Federation League next winter.
Miracles do happen but there’s a better chance of Central League organisers throwing the villagers another lifeline if someone pulls the pin although that’s highly unlikely.
“It’s a massive ask now. It’ll have to be the football upset of the season for us to win [against Suburbs],” said Greatholder who was proud of his boys and how they had grown in the premier winter league.
“It’s a hard luck story for us but it could have been a fairytale. We’ve come in and given the league a shake.”
Wanderers showed they could mix it with the big boys but it hurt.
Greatholder said they had all off season to reflect but, more immediately, they had to click their heels a little higher to lift themselves against Suburbs on August 18.
The hosts started the first half unconvincingly, especially from the back where passes lacked purpose. That enabled the Alex Palezevic-captained Greeks to dine out on poor passes and clearances in mounting wave after wave of counter attacks.
“Our communication in the back line wasn’t good enough for the way we were playing and directing so there were too many grey areas but it was something we addressed at halftime and we were much better,” Greatholder said.
Olympic had pedigree players in ex-Thirsty Whale Hawke’s Bay United player Palezevic, former Wellington Phoenix and Solomon Islands inter- national Henry Fa’arodo and ex-Bay United forager Gavin Hoy, of Canada, in the mix.
However, it was Olympic left winger Seth Ward who yielded a penalty in the second minute after defender Che Jesson-Bentley hacked him in the 18m box, which Cristian Baz coolly slotted past Hayward for a 1-0 lead.
However, Havelock North struck back, 1-all, with a Gagame Feni penalty when Joshua Murphy was fouled twice in the box in the 11th minute.
Unfortunately, another passage of indecisive passing and unforced errors in defence saw Ward pounce on the ball before slipping it past Hayward for a 2-1 lead in the 17th minute.
Greatholder’s pep talk did the trick in the second half when winger Liam Shackleton equalised 2-all just two minutes into play.
Cruelly it was the Greeks who broke the home fans’ hearts when Hoy crisply drilled in the winner from inside the box after several feeble clearances in defence.
The closest the hosts came to equalising was in the 83rd minute when Greatholder’s volley off a cross from the top of the box clipped the crossbar.
■ Thirsty Whale Napier City Rovers beat Lower Hutt City 3-0 on Saturday to remain the top contenders for the league crown this season. They will host Wairarapa United in a fortnight.