Team Taranaki disappoint in loss to Wellington Olympic

Team Taranaki coach Ian McGrath grilled his side for their lethargic performance in a 2-0 Central League football loss to Wellington Olympic at Yarrow Stadium yesterday.

Needing to pick up points with just a handful of games remaining, McGrath questioned whether his side realised the position they were as they went about their play like a team ‘‘comfortably in the middle of the table.’’

Wellington Olympic 2 Team Taranaki 0; Wairarapa United 3 Napier City Rovers 1; Stop Out 3 Palmerston North Marist 1; Western Suburbs 3 Wellington United 0; Lower Hutt 3 Miramar Rangers 1

‘‘That’s an opportunity lost, and the disappointment is not losing per se, but it’s losing in that manner,’’ McGrath said.

‘‘That’s an unacceptable performance and players have to recognise that we are in a scrap to survive with other teams around us - [Wellington Olympic] are one of them - and we need to pick up points and we need to recognise that this situation is not one that we can just allow to drift along otherwise we’ll got caught out.

‘‘We’ve got to take control of our destiny and do way better than that today.’’

Things looked ominous for Energyworks Team Taranaki from the outset as they went down 1-0 inside the opening minute.

A ball played forward from the Olympic goalkeeper got over the heads of the Taranaki defenders and goalkeeper Santiago Fernandez made a poor decision to retreat to his goal rather than go to the ball. It made easy pickings for a Wellington striker who control of the ball and got around the grasp- ing defence to slot home the opening goal.

‘‘That was a game that, yet again, we’ve conceded within the first minute, which just makes it really difficult and from that position that you gift them, an uphill battle.’’

The proved to be the case as the home side failed to push up in support on attack and really didn’t threaten the goal in the first half.

Team Taranaki showed signs of improvement in the second half and looked dangerous from set pieces.

However, frustrations were clear across the pitch as a lack in communication cause a number of turnovers - with midfielder Wade Randle seen throwing his hands up in despair multiple times.

While both teams had chances in the second half, it was the visitors who converted and took a 2-0 lead late in the piece to put the match to be.

‘‘I thought the warm up was poor, it flowed into the game and we were 1-0 down so fast that we couldn’t really recover into the game until the second half and then it almost seemed like it was going to be too late.’’

The result, as well as Lower Hutt beating Miramar, sees Team Taranaki drop to eighth on the ladder, just one point ahead of Olympic and five points clear of bottomplaced Palmerston North Marist.

Central League: