"Get him off the park," a few irate fans hollered from the stands in the 63rd minute after they lost patience with Baxter.
The goalkeeping coach and a sharp gloveman in his heyday, Baxter has looked rusty in two league matches at home but was untested in the 11-0 flogging dished out to cup minnows Massey University in between on June 6.
Yesterday he was cruelly exposed in the 29th minute when Olympic midfielder Sam Blackburn, against the run of play, floated a speculator from about 45m out to level 1-1 after Tom Biss's 24th-minute opening goal adroitly clipped past goalkeeper Scott Basalaj from inside the 18m box.
An overweight Baxter remained rooted as he appeared to misjudge the ball although he put his hands up in a delayed surrender-like reaction.
In the 57th minute, Blackburn scored the goal of the season, 2-1, in Napier when he curled in a gob-smacking flatliner from the goal line, curling the ball inside the far upright from about 18m out after Baxter committed the cardinal sin of deserting his posts rather than making the scorer come in so as to narrow his angle of attack and buy time for back up.
Stung into action, the Blues struck back, 2-all, almost within a minute of restarting after Biss became provider, running down the right flank and in one motion drifting a delivery from the corner to find Josh Stevenson's nod of approval past a stranded Basalaj.
In Baxter's defence, he made a heart-stopping save in the 81st minute after midfielder Mario Barcia, winning possession in his third on weathering the Blues storm, beat midfielder Ryan Tinsley before unleashing from inside his half but the gloveman this time defied gravity to catch the ball in one hand.
"I don't think they've done enough to beat us, really," Blues player/coach Bill Robertson lamented.
"The goals conceded were disappointing and Kyle will know himself that he's at fault ... so that's why I think we deserved to win the game."
The Blues would reassess the availability of Hanks this week but have not used Scott Dunn on the bench.
"Scott's based in Wellington and doesn't train with us so he's kind of doing us a favour in sitting in as a reserve keeper for us," said Robertson, adding Baxter had been "good for us" despite "making a couple of mistakes".
However, the season's records show in four games Baxter has conceded nine goals whereas Hanks has six put past him in seven outings.
Lower Hutt coach Ryan Sandford, despite losing 4-2, on June 4 saw Baxter as part of the Blues' Achilles heel and yesterday the Greeks weren't shy either to test that theory.
Centreback Robertson felt they created more chances than the Greeks to prevail but also did not begrudge the visitors' "well-deserved point".
"In the last 10 or 15 minutes [with a player down] they managed to hold us out so it's a good point for them."
However, Robertson hastened to add his troops were still unbeaten at Bluewater Stadium, retained their top-of-the-table perch and still had the O'Brien Challenge Shield "so it's not the end of the world".
It didn't help their cause that hamstrung playmaker Saul Halpin exited early and is out of the Chatham Cup equation against Miramar Rangers here this Sunday.
Jacobs lauded a "tough but not dirty" game but emphasised that Olympic were "hanging tough" when a man down.
"Had Mario's gone in from that long shot, things would have been different but I think it's a good point for us away from home in that second spot just a point behind Napier so it's still very tight."
Jacobs felt his troops infiltrated the Blues' back three with aplomb.
"I thought Sam Blackburn was getting into some good areas so we wanted to make sure we could stretch them but not get caught on the counter [attack] so it was one of those games, I guess, because they played very direct to two big boys at the top."
He thought the first yellow card referee John Rowbury flashed at Dylan Wood minutes after kick off was "a bit harsh".
"We got three [yellow cards] they got none. It wasn't a dirty contest but John's a good ref and I like him a lot so that's the way he saw the game, I guess," he said, feeling his players had made some strong challenges.
