PN Marist 1 Rovers 1
P-kicks (Marist won 4-2)
Rd 4, Chatham Cup
What is it about the other side of the Manawatu Gorge for Hawke's Bay sports teams?
Damn good goalkeepers, maybe, when it comes to the beautiful game?
PN Marist 1 Rovers 1
P-kicks (Marist won 4-2)
Rd 4, Chatham Cup
What is it about the other side of the Manawatu Gorge for Hawke's Bay sports teams?
Damn good goalkeepers, maybe, when it comes to the beautiful game?
Bluewater Napier City Rovers captain Bill Robertson isn't superstitious but that still didn't explain why the Blues lost their fourth-round Chatham Cup soccer match in Palmerston North on Saturday.
"I'm not a big believer of things like that," said a grinning Robertson, opting instead to reconcile their 4-2 penalty-kick defeat to Palmerston North Marist with the Blues' inability to perform to their capabilities after the sides were tied 1-1 in regulation time at a wet and bitterly cold Skoglund Park.
But the game, controversially played after New Zealand Football disqualified Wairarapa United last Monday for fielding an ineligible player against the Rovers in Napier in round three, had all the ingredients of a knockout cup fairy tale.
The lower-tier Marist, leaders in the Lotto Central Federation League, lived up to the hype of the script of this winter's cup giant killers against the sole Central League campaigners from the Bay.
The hosts drew first blood on a sticky field, heavy underfoot, when striker Tomas Mosquera crisply drilled in a cross from the left flank in the 55th minute for a 1-0 lead.
It wasn't until the 77th minute that defender-cum-striker Danny Wilson scored the equaliser after bringing down a header, turning just inside the 18m box to place the ball past a diving Marist goalkeeper Gurkarnvir Singh, 1-1.
Wilson came close to scoring the winner in the 86th minute, having beaten goalkeeper Singh but finding a defender clearing the ball from the line.
The script had another turning point in the final minute of the first 15 minutes of extra time when referee Antony Riley sent off Marist midfielder Tyson Bryant for a sprigs-up tackle, his second yellow card.
But the green-and-white brigade soldiered on to deny the Blues an advantage.
In the 20th minute of extra time, Wilson rocketed a shot that clipped the crossbar.
Eight minutes later, Rovers substitute defender Scott Henderson - who had come in for midfielder David Gearey, out with a dislocated knee in the 57th minute but with no stretcher or medics in sight for almost 15 minutes - also got his marching orders after deliberately palming away the ball from the net as a shot looked a certain goal from a cornerkick.
Rovers goalkeeper Shaun Peta, coming in for Jonty Underhill injured during training on Thursday night, was the hero, blocking Marist captain Mickey Christford's ensuing penalty kick between his legs.
"David Gearey's knee popped back into place as they dragged him off the park towards the goalline," Hastings explained yesterday.
In the penalty shootout, Andy Bevin missed first up for Rovers with Singh picking his right-hand corner to parry the ball.
Mosquera had Peta diving the wrong way before Cole Peverley scored the Blues' first one.
Jordon Martens made it 2-1 for Marist before Wilson arrived amid jeers.
"Choker, choker," a group chorused from the sidelines and Wilson obliged.
Andy Porteous casually made it 3-1 for the Palmy side before striker/winger Harley Rodeka stepped up to another chorus of: "Show us what yer made of?"
Singh got his hands to Rodeka's shot but couldn't stop it going over his head and into the net, much to the kicker's relief.
Khair Jones made it 4-2 as the Marist players erupted into wild celebrations amid manly hugs in the centre of the field.
If Rovers coach Grant Hastings felt it was a "mental thing" that his men were not putting the ball into the net lately this season, it would then be fair to assume the Blues are pretty close to going into receivership in that department based on Saturday's effort from the penalty spot.
"They are underdogs so we should be coming here and winning comfortably, we think," Robertson said, after Marist could have been at least 2-0 up in the first half.
In one instance, Mosquera chose to shoot rather than pass to two unmarked players in the box in the 19th minute while two minutes earlier Rovers came close to gifting an own goal when centreback Regan Cameron headed a ball back a little too hard to Peta who had called for it.
"We know they were going well in the league so we didn't underestimate them because we certainly did our homework," Robertson said of an opposition seeking promotion to the premier winter men's competition, the Central League.
While the heavy pitch didn't suit the Rovers (and it was revealed after the game Marist deliberately chose it over a pristine Memorial Park) and the visitors got claustrophobic changing rooms, the captain emphasised there weren't any excuses for the loss.
"They've worked really hard for each other so probably deserved their victory today," Robertson said.
In the first half, he said, his troops fell shy and in the second they improved but to no avail.
"We thought we'd done enough in the end there to take it into extra time but every credit to them and I wish them all the best for the rest of the year."
Robertson said defensively they weren't as good as previous years but felt their inability to score was more an issue.
"Our finishing has let us down in the previous few games so it's something we need to improve on."
Wairarapa goalkeeper Matt Borren, of Palmerston North, had denied Rovers with great saves in the third round in Napier but on Saturday it was the turn of another keeper, Singh, a 23-year-old Wanganui police officer who travels to play for Marist, to haunt the Blues as proof to coach Hastings that lightning can strike twice.
"Penalties have always been my thing. I've been doing it for as long as I've been living so it's all right," Singh said before lauding his teammates.
"The boys really put it all out there today so I'm really proud of them. I did my bit but we wouldn't be there if they hadn't done what they did. Even when we were 1-all and we went down to 10 men they just kept giving."
The "magic in the cup" was always Marist's theme so it was great to live up to it, he said.
Marist didn't lack any confidence on their club day. The match day pamphlet had a quiz segment, "Who am I?", listing the achievements of an ex-Rovers goalkeeper, Mark Paston, whose biggest career moment was saving a penalty in the World Cup qualifier against Bahrain in 2009.
But Saturday belonged to another, keeper Singh.
"We were going to give it everything out there.
"There's no point in playing if you're not there to win," Singh said as the dejected Rovers trudged off the field.
The only cruel twist to this fairy tale will be if NZ Football this week rule in favour of Wairarapa's appeal against their disqualification, which means Marist will have to replay the fourth round.
The Palmy boys fully deserve to go to the quarterfinals purely on passion, if not for doing their homework in checking out details on the Rovers' website, such as which corner Peverley religiously chooses to place the ball during penalty kicks.
Watch: Match officials called 'really poor' - penalty not given after striker cut down.