Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post / Sport

Villagers dominate in Chatham Cup match

By Stuart Whitaker
Rotorua Daily Post·
5 Jun, 2017 05:45 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Ngongotaha players celebrate one of their goals during their 5-1 win Chatham Cup win over Beachlands Maraetai. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Ngongotaha players celebrate one of their goals during their 5-1 win Chatham Cup win over Beachlands Maraetai. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"C'mon, we're better than this," yelled Ngongotaha AFC's Conor Hinz midway through the first half of today's Chatham Cup game at Stembridge Rd.

As it happened, they were, and ultimately won the game 5-1. But at that point, his frustrations came, not from the home side's inability to create, more their inability to score - and to having gone a goal behind to visitors Beachlands Maraetai, who play in the AFF/NFF conference, a few minutes earlier.

The Villagers had dominated up to that point, with long balls finding Mitch Miller who had handed a guilt-edged opportunity to Yamil Casas, who shot wide, then decided to take matters into his own hands only to hit the side netting.

Alexi Pinto's long-range effort brought the first save from Beachlands' keeper, Johannes Busser, and Luke Barker's headed effort was also close, as Beachlands were given little option than to absorb the pressure.

Despite the dominance, it was the visitors who were first to score when Nicholas Reid nipped in behind the Ngongy defence and got his foot to the ball a split-second before keeper James Towers' hands, to guide the ball into the net.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

With regular head coach Shane Davis away, stand-in Stephen Towers said his side wobbled a bit at that point in the game.

"We've wobbled before and not handled, it but we did today," he said.

Balance was restored when a pinpoint pass from Pinto found Harlem Simiona in space and with time to pick his spot, fired his shot inside the near post.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Ngongotaha AFC player Harlem Simiona was one of the goal scorers for his team. PHOTO/BEN FRASER
Ngongotaha AFC player Harlem Simiona was one of the goal scorers for his team. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Two minutes later Ngongy were ahead when Pinto beat the offside trap, skipping round Busser and finding the net from a narrow angle.

Early in the second half, a head down from a corner fell to sub Josh O'Sullivan who made no mistake and Ngongotaha were looking more comfortable.

An injury to Barker saw Stephen Towers introduce Simon Te Kiri who slotted in at left back.

Up for a corner, he celebrated coming on by scoring with a powerful header and then added his second with an equally powerful shot after a short corner.

"We were always going to bring him on, it was just earlier because of the injury," said Stephen Towers.

A six-week cameo by centre back Andy O'Donoghue, with the club while home on holiday from his studies in the US on a sports scholarship, came to an end with this game.

"With Andy going back to America, Simon was always going to come on to get him ready for the Northern League," said Stephen Towers. "To come on and score two goals is very good and you can't argue with that."

While the substitution meant a bit of a reshuffle of troops, that wasn't a problem.

"We are lucky that when subs come on, we have players that can rotate into different
positions.

"And we aren't so one-dimensional - we showed that today. We played long and we knocked it short today. [Beachlands] are first or second in their conference and they had a couple of tidy players, but they never really hurt us."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Next Saturday Ngongotaha return to Northern League division two football with a home game against Onehunga-Mangere AFC.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Rotorua Daily Post

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

30 Jun 06:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Biggest summer of cricket' shapes up for Bay Oval

25 Jun 07:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

Five Steamers players making waves in the Māori All Blacks

03 Jul 10:00 PM

The Māori All Blacks face Scotland in Whangārei on Saturday.

'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

'It’s a big deal': Young gamers chase international esports glory

30 Jun 06:00 PM
'Biggest summer of cricket' shapes up for Bay Oval

'Biggest summer of cricket' shapes up for Bay Oval

25 Jun 07:00 PM
Small but mighty: Kyro gets set for Tai Mitchell challenge

Small but mighty: Kyro gets set for Tai Mitchell challenge

24 Jun 09:26 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP