KEY POINTS:
A last-gasp winner from substitute David Mulligan against Vanuatu in Port Vila yesterday saved face for the All Whites and firmly put their Confederations/World Cup campaign back on track.
The battling come-from-behind 2-1 win for Ricki Herbert's side coupled with the amazing 3-3 draw between South Pacific Games champion New Caledonia - who trailed 0-2 before coming back to share the points with Fiji in Ba - gives the New Zealanders the chance to slam the door on the rest if they win the return with Vanuatu in Wellington on Wednesday.
But at 0-1 inside the opening half hour and with a resolute defensive effort to overcome, the All Whites were forced to work hard and did not get back to 1-1 until the 53rd minute.
From that point, and with the home team starting to flag, the All Whites, with a couple of timely substitutions, picked it up and claimed the winner four minutes into the five minutes of added time.
The All Whites were caught out after 27 minutes when Vanuatu played the ball long to speedy Jean Nako Naprapol.
Goalkeeper Mark Paston came for the ball but failed to gather and was beaten from the edge of the penalty area.
The visitors lifted their game - and continued to ask more questions of the Vanuatu defence - but without breaching their goal.
In one such raid, not long after the home side had gone ahead, Leo Bertos and Shane Smeltz had shots blocked and captain Tim Brown had an attempt tipped over.
The equaliser came when Bertos played in from the left to Smeltz who headed the ball down and watched in delight as the ball bounced and looped over goalkeeper Chikau Mansale and into the gaping goal.
Given the testing conditions, it was no surprise that Herbert went to his bench injecting Jarrod Smith for Chris James, David Mulligan for Ivan Vicelich and later debutante Daniel Ellensohn for Smeltz.
They picked up the pace and with Mansale forced off with injury and replaced by his 40-year-old uncle David Chilia, the All Whites sensed they had a chance.
Chilia made a mess of some attempted clearances and it was no surprise in the end he was caught out.
The visitors won a free kick on the left. Bertos played the ball to the far post and Mulligan headed home much to the delight of his team-mates.
Herbert conceded his team struggled early on with conditions forcing him to throw much of the game plan away. He had hoped to stretch the home side by playing with width but a bumpy pitch ended such thoughts.
"We were disappointed to fall behind as we did," said Herbert. "We got punished by pace and had to regather. He was a decent player and got around our defence."
Herbert is hoping for better in Wellington.
"It was a fantastic crowd up here," he said from Port Vila. "But I hope we can do better when we turn up for or first really meaningful home game in six or seven years on Wednesday."
While loathe to single out individual players, Herbert did say that Auckland City defender Ben Sigmund "epitomises for me what the white shirt is all about."
