Hawke's Bay United suffered their seventh loss of the season - a 2-1 defeat away to Canterbury United. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawke's Bay United suffered their seventh loss of the season - a 2-1 defeat away to Canterbury United. Photo / Paul Taylor
Playoff hopes have begun to slip away from Hawke's Bay United after a frustrating 2-1 loss to Canterbury United yesterday afternoon.
After picking up 10 points from their previous five matches, United were beaten by the Dragons at English Park in Christchurch.
After a scrappy opening to the game, Canterburysoon found their rhythm, scoring the opening goal in the eighth minute.
Despite calls for offside from the HBU backline, Yuya Taguchi slotted calmly past Scott Morris after clever build-up play from Lyle Matthysen and Garbhan Coughlan.
Hawke's Bay improved as the first half went on, but failed to convert their chances with strikers Cameron Emerson and Jorge Akers looking unlikely to find the net.
Midfielder Manny Achol came close for the visitors early in the second half, before Ahmad Othman levelled the scores in the 70th minute.
The Syrian midfielder netted his second goal of the season after calmly shooting back across Dragons' keeper Danny Knight.
The visitors failed to make their momentum count and found themselves behind less than 10 minutes later after failing to clear their lines.
Substitute Edward Wilkinson punished the visitors, squeezing a low driven shot from 20 metres past an outstretched Morris.
Chris Greatholder's side will feel hard done by however after Matthysen seemingly handled the ball inside the Dragons' penalty area in added time – but referee Ben O'Connell waved away the appeals.
Hawke's Bay United were beaten by the Canterbury United Dragons at English Park in Christchurch. Photo / File
Hawke's Bay United currently sit seventh with three games to play – five points adrift of Canterbury and the playoffs.
Dragons central midfielder Cory Mitchell said his side had focused on working hard for the full 90 minutes to keep more concentration after drawing their previous two games.
"The last couple of weeks we'd had lapses of concentration for 10 minutes or so and it really cost us," he said.
Mitchell said the match was his sides "make or break" fixtures if the Dragons are going to make the playoffs.
Goalkeeper Scott Morris said while the playoffs are achievable, the final three games are crucial.
"The success of our season will be dictated by how hard we can grind out results in these last three rounds," he said.
"We started pretty poorly, and you could tell the state of the turf impacted on our players."
Morris said while referees often receive flack, this season has seen more mistakes than usual.
"I want to say it's surprising we got the wrong end of the ref's decisions, but I could almost count on both hands the number of games where we've had blatant fouls, penalties and red cards waved away."
