KEY POINTS:
Ricki Herbert's All Whites exorcised a four-year-old ghost with their 2-1 heart-stopper in Port Vila on Saturday.
They can now look forward to the return with Vanuatu in Wellington on Wednesday confident they can all but slam the door on their Oceania opponents in the race for a spot in the next phase of World Cup 2010 qualifying.
But until substitute David Mulligan sealed the win with a stoppage time header, the memories of that last clash with Vanuatu - the harrowing 4-2 loss in Adelaide which ended New Zealand's 2006 World Cup hopes in 2003 - continued to haunt the team. Not, thankfully, any more.
Down on firepower, with yet another rushed preparation and playing in the mid-afternoon heat on a bumpy pitch, the All Whites were up against it.
At 0-1 inside half an hour those four-year-old memories must have started to play on the players' minds, especially those who had been part of that last debacle.
But, as Herbert and his assistant Brian Turner have been at pains to point out, that was then, this is now and this team is not about ever giving up.
Indeed, within minutes of Jean Nako Naprapol's opening goal, when he raced on to a superb ball from talented midfielder Fenedy Masauvakalo and snapped his shot past advancing All Whites goalkeeper Mark Paston, Leo Bertos, Shane Smeltz and captain Tim Brown were all denied by Vanuatu custodian Chikau Mansale.
But the All Whites remained calm, played their way into the game and by the 53rd minute were back on terms when Smeltz nodded home a Bertos cross.
Encouraged by the 6000-strong crowd, enjoying their first taste of international football in almost a decade, the home side picked up their game, with Paston being tested in the 74th and 82nd minute by Masauvakalo and influential Seule Soromons.
With Herbert going to his bench and introducing the fresh legs of Jarrod Smith, Mulligan and debutante Daniel Ellensohn, the pace picked up as the visitors tested veteran goalkeeper David Chilia who had replaced his injured nephew in the 81st minute.
Eventually, and with the clock showing four of the five minutes Papua New Guinean referee Job Panis Minan had decreed should be added, Mulligan, smarting after being left out of the starting Xl, did the job when, at the far post, he headed home a Bertos freekick.
Herbert, understandably happy with the win and a two-from-two (both away) start to the Confederations/World Cup campaign, said life had not been easy.
"It was difficult to keep the ball down and flowing which meant we had to go a bit more direct than we would have liked," said Herbert. "But, we won and that is all that matters."
While loath to single out any player, he did point to Auckland City captain and central defender Ben Sigmund as "a player who, for me, epitomises the All Whites jersey, he's a real heart-on-the-sleeve guy. He won all his headers and was tidy".
At the same time in Ba, Fiji blew their chance to get back into title consideration when they squandered the 2-0 lead they held until the 66th minute to eventually finish 3-3 with South Pacific Games winners New Caledonia.
The return matches will be played in Wellington and Noumea on Wednesday before the competition resumes next year.
Another win this week and New Zealand should be all but there by then.
