Soccer: Angell yet to decide on future with United

Hawke's Bay United forward Wes Cain and Southern United defender Stephen Last tussle for possession on Saturday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay United soccer team's head coach Brett Angell has yet to decide if he will seek the role again next summer.

"It's too raw now to make that decision. I'll spend some time during the winter thinking about it after we've reflected and reviewed the season before I make it," Angell said after Thirsty Whale Hawke's Bay United's 3-1 loss to Southern United in their final ISPS Handa Premiership match of the season at Bluewater Stadium on Saturday.

The loss meant Hawke's Bay United failed to win a home game this season and with their eighth placing failed to make the playoffs for the first time in six years.

"This game epitomised the season," Angell said and he was spot on.

"We conceded soft goals and didn't take our opportunities. The boys didn't concentrate. They were pre-warned on how Southern United were going to play and they didn't take in that information. They recognised it far too late.

"That's definitely not the way I wanted to finish the season and I know it wasn't the way the boys wanted to finish," Angell said.

Once again several of the squad's youngsters got plenty of game time and that has been the big positive this season.

"It would have been nice to have drip fed the youngsters in rather than play them all at once. But they will be wiser for the experience," Angell added.

Poor discipline also let the hosts down. They received five yellow cards, the majority for poor technique with their slide tackles, while Southern United received one.

Taking the arduous travel arrangements the Southern United team had into account Hawke's Bay United should have done better. The visitors had to wake up at 4.30am on the day of the match to catch a 5.20am flight from Dunedin to Wellington where they caught a connecting flight to Napier which enabled them to get to Park Island in time for the 2pm clash.

"The boys were out on their feet at the end of the match. Every one of them deserves praise for their contribution to the effort," Southern United head coach Paul O'Reilly said.

No prizes for guessing who the player of the match was. Yes, it was Southern United's Irish striker Garbhan Coughlan, who celebrated St Patrick's Day with a hat trick. A professional at his home club of Limerick, Coughlan is playing his first season in New Zealand and has scored six goals in his past four games.

Coughlan opened the scoring for the visitors with a goal in the 20th minute. He found the Hawke's Bay defenders out of position and beat keeper Ruben Parker with ease.

O'Reilly agreed the turning point in the match was when busy Hawke's Bay United forward Tinashe Marowa missed a sitter in the 29th minute. He received a good pass on the Southern United line and tapped the ball into visiting keeper Liam Little's arms when the rest of the goal in front of him was wide open.

Had Marowa capitalised on that opportunity the score would have been 1-all. Fifteen minutes later Coughlan succeeded with a penalty attempt after Hawke's Bay United left back Jorge Akers conceded a soft penalty and it was always going to be tough for the hosts to recover.

Southern United deserved their 2-0 lead at halftime. They had six shots on goal, one more than their hosts during the first 45 minutes, and were awarded four corners, one more than Hawke's Bay United.

When the final whistle blew Southern United had 10 shots on goal, one more than Hawke's Bay United, and Hawke's Bay United had been awarded six corners, one more than the visitors.

Sixteen minutes into the second half Coughlan had his hat trick when he headed in a superb feed from Conor O'Keefe.

Hawke's Bay United's forwards were guilty of not putting themselves in space and better scoring positions when teammates had the ball. However they never gave up and were rewarded with a consolation goal in the 82nd minute to substitute Sam De St Croix.

Marowa was creative on attack and captain and centre back Bill Robertson again had a huge defensive workrate. Once again Robertson was dominant in the air.