Football: Villagers secure second away win

Ngongotaha's Luke Barker got his name on the scoresheet in the 2-1 win over Takapuna AFC on Saturday. Photo/Stephen Parker

Three points and three places up the ladder.

Ngongotaha AFC scored their second win of their Northern League Division 2 campaign on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over Takapuna AFC. Both wins have come on the road.

The competition points have moved Ngongotaha up to eighth in the 12-team division.

The Villagers, as they have done several times already this season, dominated the first half, and managed to find the back of the net twice through Luke Barker. But where in past games, including the previous weekend against Albany Utd, they have let leads slip and dropped points, this time they hung on, limiting the home side to a single second-half goal.

"They gave us a bit of drama and I thought 'oh no, they are going to come back and draw'," said Ngongotaha AFC coach Shane Davis.

"They tended to push a lot forward, but the defence held out for the rest of the 90 minutes and we got the three points. The boys are really rapt."

Barker was named player of the day.

"He played really well in the middle of the park. I dropped him back. He normally plays a lot higher up front, but I dropped him back into the midfield.

"But the whole team played really well. It was a great team effort again that carried on from last week, the only difference is we finished with the three points - and we needed the points," Davis said.

Next weekend attention turns to the Chatham Cup with a home game against Beachlands Maraetai.

In the WaiBOP Premiership, Rotorua Utd went down 5-0 to Unicol.