Coach made to suffer as WaiBop leap into contention
WAIBOP United coach Smith doesn’t want to feel player again.
Smith was forced to watch his side’s 2-1 upset ASB Premiership victory over Team Wellington from the stands on Saturday, after being sent from the dugout the previous weekend.
The Scot struggled throughout the match as his players and assistant coach Paul Drake helped engineer a deserved win over the previous league leaders that has turned WaiBop into a genuine playoff contender.
‘‘I’m not doing that again,’’ Smith said after the final whistle with a wry grin.
‘‘It was nerve-racking . . . I was kicking and heading and tackling every ball. But to Paul’s credit, and the rest of the coaching staff, Peter like a ship debut in the previous round.
With Mark Jones and overlapping fullback Fergus Neil causing problems down the right, Wellington’s Michael O’Keefe was far the busier of the goalkeepers in the first spell. He also had no chance with the equaliser on the half-hour mark when Craig Wylie’s freekick got a big deflection off the head of one of the defenders in the wall.
Wellington were poised to regain the lead shortly before halftime when an awkward backpass header from captain Aaron Scott fell short of Drake, who brought down the chasing Ian Hogg. However, the keeper sprung to his left to save the resulting penalty taken by Wellington skipper Cole Peverley.
Buoyed by that, the hosts pressed again and after squandering a couple of earlier chances, striker Federico Marquez finished coolly after bursting 45th minute.
Wellington pushed hard for an equaliser in the second half but WaiBop chiefly defended with aplomb, and always looked likely to add another with a string of counter-attacks.
‘‘We played a little smarter, kept our fullbacks at home,’’Scott said of the second-half display. ‘‘I wouldn’t say we changed things tactically, just got smarter and wiser about how to see a game out.
‘‘We conceded a soft goal after five minutes, but we still knew there was a lot of time left to change things. While it was disappointing, we didn’t drop our heads.’’
The win pushed WaiBop into a group of six teams chasing the two other likely playoff places behind Auckland City and Team Wellington.
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