Football: Promotion spot so close for City Utd

AFC Fury's Matias Barto Lozzi (white) battles for the ball during Sunday's loss to Auckland's Fencibles United.

Northern Premier League football is within touching distance for Belvedere Tauranga City United.

A 3-0 win at Ngaruawahia on Saturday, combined with lowly Waiuku holding second-placed North Shore to a 1-1 draw, means City United are now third in Northern League First division, five points off the critical second promotion spot, with a game in hand.

Belying their place as the bottom side in the first division, Ngaruawahia made things tough for their visitors who were without first choice goalkeeper Tom Pamment with an eye infection.

Stand-in Ryan Foord proved an excellent replacement with an outstanding display keeping out a number of one-on-one chances that could have turned the game.

City United's first goal came from Fawwaz Ali after some great work down the right flank from Jerahl Hughes. A second-half penalty from Hughes, his 13th goal of the season, afforded some breathing space before the scoring was completed by Van Ewert.

Man of the match, Jordan Culpepper, continued his season's great form with a tireless display of energy and commitment.

Next Sunday City United are home to Takapuna.

One division down and AFC Fury are sitting in eighth place on 19 points after losing 3-0 at home to Fencibles United on Sunday.

Club founder David Cook says that, after two defeats on the trot, it's obvious where the problems lie.

"We have an issue scoring goals at the moment and if you don't score goals then the other team will," he said. "We've missed so many goals in the last few games - and goals change games."

Bringing in new players isn't an option, so making better use of those already on the books is where the answers lie. "I guess we do not have the personnel and we maybe need to look at our squad and see how we change things round. It will be a matter of maybe changing the formation we play ... and we'll be looking at tinkering with that to get going again because unfortunately what happens is, you can get in a winning groove, and you can also get in a losing groove."

Next Sunday will offer an opportunity to test any changes tried at training this week when North Force - who sit one position above last Sunday's opponents - visit Maramatanga Park.

Cook said he was comfortable with where the club sat and the off-field progress that was being made.

"We're not particularly worried about promotion and we're happy to stay in the league this year because it is our first year at this level.

"We have learned a lot, for example about travelling, and it's a step up.

"But I haven't seen a game where we've truly been beaten - we've lost our past two games and two highly-rated coaches have independently said we should have won both those games."

Cook said work off the field was where permanent changes originate and was confident that progress in that area was being made.