Football: Tauranga stay in hunt for promotion

Tauranga City United midfielder Josh Nelson passes the ball in the 2-1 win over Takapuna at Links Avenue on Sunday. Photo / George Novak

Belvedere Tauranga City United remain firmly in contention for a place in next year's Northern Premier league after beating Takapuna 2-1 at Links Avenue on Sunday.

The victory was not without its moments of uncertainty but with a major territorial advantage, the pressure was mostly on the visitors throughout the 90 minutes.

Tauranga stay third on the table, with a game in hand on second-placed North Shore United and within striking distance of one of the two automatic promotion places.

Saturday's away match to leaders Forrest Hill Milford on Auckland's North Shore is a huge game in the context of the promotion battle.

Northern Division One's top marksman Jerahl Hughes opened the scoring for Tauranga with his 14th goal of the season after 18 minutes. The only surprise for the rest of the game is that he did not get yet another hat-trick, such was his dominance.

But a rush of blood to the head from goalkeeper Tom Pamment enabled Takapuna to equalise after 30 minutes and another misjudged charge off his line nearly cost his team another goal minutes later.

Quality French import Simon Millet should have scored from inside the six-yard box before the break but his volley flew high over the crossbar.

The second half had barely started when promising midfielder Fawwaz Ali missed a great chance to put Tauranga 2-1 up but that goal finally came after 57 minutes when captain Raymond How glanced a header in from yet another corner.

Takapuna did put the ball in the back of Tauranga's net from a rare corner for them with 15 minutes left to play but, to the relief of the good-sized crowd at Links Avenue, referee Bruce Horrox disallowed it for a push in the back of one of Tauranga's defenders.

How was confident they could take the game in the second spell. "We try to take it 45 minutes at a time. The first half was a bit dodgy but, as it was 1-1, we knew we had to score the next goal and we did," he said.

"We knew we could defend as a unit so it was easy in the end. But good teams always win when they play bad so that keeps us right up there with two games in hand."

How said next week's game against Forrest Hill will be even tougher with losing a couple of players overseas.

"But we are a tight unit with 20 in the squad and 20 turn up to training on Thursday. So they are all pushing for a place. Promotion is what we signed up for at the start of the season, back-to-back promotions is what we are looking for."

Belvedere Tauranga City United 2 (Jerahl Hughes 18' Raymond How 57') Takapuna 1 (Thomson Nkoy 30')