Crucial win for Team Wellington

Team Wellington won the battle of the early national league pacesetters with a 2-1 triumph yesterday.

Meanwhile, in the National Women’s League, the Northern Lights moved to the top of the table with a win over Central yesterday, while Capital were knocked out of the running to make the final after a draw with Auckland on Saturday.

At Riverhills Park in Auckland, Team Wellington’s Hamish Watson scored his seventh goal of the season from as many matches when finding the bottom corner of the Eastern Suburbs goal in the 12th minute.

Andre de Jong equalised six minutes later for Suburbs with a good finish at the end of a superb Callum McCowatt cross.

Watson grabbed his eighth of the season when scoring from the penalty spot in the 24th minute for what proved to be the winner.

The match of the round was at English Park in Christchurch yesterday, where there were two red cards and six goals as Hamilton Wanderers fought back from 3-0 down against Canterbury United to draw 3-3.

Wanderers had Derek Tieku and Jordan Shaw sent off during their second-half comeback, but Martin Bueno bagged a brace, as did Canterbury’s Stephen Hoyle at the other end.

The remainder of yesterday’s matches were straightforward affairs.

Southern United’s Markus Fjortoft was sent off after just 26 minutes for two bookable offences in as many minutes, but that didn’t stop his side beating Tasman United 3-1 thanks to a first-half brace from Garbhan Coughlan.

Hawke’s Bay United beat Waitakere United 4-0, while Auckland City eased past the Wellington Phoenix reserves 3-0.

In the women’s league, Capital looked to have secured a crucial three points against Auckland which would have kept their season alive when leading

2-1 in the 88th minute, only for Wellington born-and-raised Jade Morrissey,who is the younger sister of Capital assistant coach Sam Morrissey,to pop up with an equaliser two minutes from time to deny her home region the win.

Dropping those two points, combined with the Northern Lights’ 5-1 win over Central yesterday, meant Capital were officially eliminated from the final race with two rounds to go.

Northern’s victory saw them go top, two points clear of Canterbury, who have a game in hand, with Auckland three points behind Canterbury in third.

Southern United completed a

5-2 victory over WaiBOP to stay comfortably in fourth place.