Football: Ngongotaha fail to take chances against Metro

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Ngongotaha have fought hard this season, but a failure to make the most of the periods in games when they dominate sees them rooted to the bottom of the Northern Region Football League Division 2 table.

Coach Ron Cane said his side started well against Metro in Auckland yesterday,but were unable to turn that dominance into goals, eventually going down 3-1.

"There's that old saying that the scoreline didn't reflect the game and that was very true yesterday. We left Ngongotaha at 7.15am for another long away trip with four first team players unavailable.

"But we started the game and the guys seemed in real good spirits. For the first 25 minutes we were the team in the ascendancy. We attacked well down both sides of the pitch, creating chances in the box and I thought maybe we'd turned a bit of a corner," Cane said.

However, Ngongotaha were unable to get on the scoreboard and after 16 minutes Metro scored on the counter-attack through David Rayner. They held a 1-0 lead at halftime.

"Rather than put the boys down they were disciplined and the energy was good. But because we were chasing the game, as it went on we got more and more anxious, we were throwing players forward, leaving more holes. They found one and scored their second goal."

Cane said he could not fault the effort of his players.

"They kept fighting and after about 70 minutes I put Hayden Booker on and he came up with a goal 15 minutes from the end to make it 2-1."

Ngongotaha pushed for an equaliser but Metro sealed the victory with a goal to Josh Chemis in the 92nd minute.

"We started the game on the back foot - some of our first team players had to play for the reserves beforehand because we didn't have the numbers. We don't have the players that some of these Auckland clubs have available. Until there is some development and more players coming through we will struggle.

"You can't take anything away from the guys who are there though, they never stop trying," Cane said.

Lotto NRFL Men's Division Two results

Metro 3-1 Ngongotaha (HT 1-0)
MET: David Rayner 16', Josh Dayal 70', Josh Chemis 90+2'
NGO: Hayden Booker 75'

Onehunga Mangere United 1-0 Claudelands Rovers (HT: 1-0)
OMU: Sangster Crawford 27'

Franklin United 8-1 Cambridge FC (HT: 4-0)
FRA: Rinal Prasad 9', Jake McCoy 19', Charlie Heather 27' (PEN) 90', Kartik Kumar 39' 90+4', Own Goal 52', Mark Thompson 53',
CAM: Bradley Rea 58'

Bucklands Beach AFC 6-0 Te Atatu (HT: 2-0)
BUC: Scott Foster 1', Josh Smith 28', Lucas Stead 59' 64', Isaac Harraway 72', Ben de Ruiter 90+2'

Albany United 0-2 Takapuna (HT 0-2)
TAK: Jack Taylor 3', Jonathan Lewis 12'

Northland 1-0 Papakura City (HT: 1-0)
NOR: Caleb Russ 8'