Football: Winger Jorge Akers lapping up new defensive role with Hawke's Bay United

An attacker at the top of the park from his childhood days, Jorge Akers has no qualms about playing at leftback for Hawke's Bay United. Photo/Photosport

He came into the Hawke's Bay United equation a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed teenager to dictate terms and score goals but one day Jorge Akers walked into the changing room for training to find his name on the whiteboard to help shore up the Hawke's Bay United defence.

"I didn't think much of it at the time except that it was interesting," says Akers before the Thirsty Whale-sponsored Bay United team travel to Trafalgar Park, Nelson, to play Tasman United in round 14 tomorrow.

He gradually reconciled it with: "I don't mind where, as long as I get an opportunity to play, I'm more than happy to take it."

However, the enormity of the task isn't lost on Akers, who turns 18 on March 3, especially as the Hawke's Bay franchise face the daunting mission of winning all five remaining games to keep the team's proud playoff record alive this 2017-18 summer.

A bloke who spent all his life hatching moves to terrorise defenders now finds himself putting himself under cross examination in a witness box after an ISPS Handa Premiership soccer match to quell those who harbour his old instincts.

The former Napier Boys' High pupil says coach Brett Angell told him a few days before the round 10 game at Bluewater Stadium, Park Island, that he was going to help put up the shutters against Hamilton Wanderers on January 7.

While it was a different part of the field, where embracing some aspects of the bunker mentality are crucial, he took heart from Angell giving him licence to roam forward from left back.

"I was an attacking fullback so I had the attacking aspects to start with and then it was the defending parts that I had to start learning quite quickly."

As the son of former All Whites striker Marty Akers, he has downloaded the attributes of a forager but game time at an elite level is what he's been yearning for to build his dossier.

With Bay United captain Bill Robertson marshalling the backline from centre back, Akers started developing a sense of when to envelope an opposition attacker and when to drop back.

It helps that Angell urges the defenders to look up when in possession to find midfielders before advancing up the flanks if there's no impending threat.

No doubt Akers finds those regimented shuttle runs on training nights have been preparing him well for those sporadic bursts in the coach's full-press defence and attack philosophy.

While he misses playing up front, the teenager is enjoying straying outside his comfort zone to grow his game and become more versatile. When he returns to attacking, he believes he will have a better appreciation of what is going through the mind of a Beefeater trying to crowd him away from the stock exchange area.

"I'm able to play in more positions now and am recognised in all aspects of the game, I guess."

He says Robertson regularly offers words of encouragement and reminders to not desert his post any time his attacking instincts take over.

Australian centre back Hayden McHenery, who gravitated to right back after Kohei Matsumoto didn't return from Japan after Christmas because of visa issues, also had offered him solid tips.

"Hayden used to share his experiences and stuff like that. He'd tell me when to hold my body shape and the right time to get forward to cover and balance."

Akers also has a better appreciation of the pedigree of attacking players and how much they toil before creating chances to put the ball in the net despite having all the raw attributes.

It is his first full season at national summer league level after he got a run in a couple of games in the 2016-17 season.

Akers has started in the past four games but is mindful every round he has to keep showing Angell and Robertson that he isn't complacent about his newfound position.

"It's a do-or-die football for us now, so we've got to win every game," he says, after a giant-killing 2-0 win over playoff contenders Eastern Suburbs in Palmerston North last Sunday.

Akers was on the bench in the 1-1 stalemate against Tasman United at Park Island in round eight on December 10. He has never played in Nelson before.

He is working at the freezer department of Simply Squeeze in Napier in the hope of saving money to embark on his big OE.

Bay United will be without the services of English import midfielder Adam Thurston, who jetted back to Adelaide, Australia, this week to rejoin his old club.

However, Tanashe Marowa, a former Tasman United winger, immediately proved his worth with a goal last Sunday on debut for Bay United after arriving here on the January 24 transfer window but isn't playing tomorrow.

Angell sees the injury toll and unavailability of personnel as an opportunity for others.

"I do feel it gives some of the younger boys a chance to show their wares and I've got more than enough confidence that whatever squad we put out will be more than a match for the opposition.

"Tasman have had a bit of a turnaround in their player base and that will have an impact but we're expecting a difficult game," he says.

The hosts are smarting from a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Team Wellington last round and their sense of urgency has intensified with fourth-placed Canterbury United Dragons three points ahead with a game in hand.

■ TASMAN UTD: 1. Corey Wilson (GK), 2. Luca Perico, 3. Edward Sillars, 4. Cameron Lindsay, 5. Mark Johnston, 8. Paul Ifill, 9. Maksym Kowal, 16. Daniel Allan, 17. Callan Elliot, 18. Matt Tod-Smith, 19. Lyle Matthysen, 20. Alex Britton (RGK), 23. Sam Ayers, 25. Pan La Bu.
Coach: Davor Tavich.

■ HAWKE'S BAY UTD: 26. Mackenzie Waite (GK), 4. Graham Craven, 5. Bill Robertson (c), 6. Alex Palezevic, 7. Wesley Cain, 8. Sam St De Croix, 11. Hayato Wakino, 12. Ben Lack, 13. Jordan Lamb, 15. Jim Hoyle, 18. Josh Murphy, 19. Birhanu Taye, 21. Bjorn Christensen, 22. Jorge Akers, 24. Karanjit Mandair, 33. McCullough Wilson (RGK).
Coach: Brett Angell.