A top four is slowly being formed in the ASB Premiership after several teams notched significant wins today.
Auckland City will end 2015 at the top of the pile after taking down WaiBOP United 2-0 in Hamilton, but they are being closely tailed by Team Wellington and Canterbury United, whoalso both picked up important victories.
Goals to Dae Wook Kim and Emiliano Tade saw a City side missing four regulars bounce back from their FIFA Club World Cup loss, taking a deserved win against a WaiBOP side now five points outside the top four.
Kim opened the scoring after Tade had a woeful penalty saved - coming in off a two-step run-up and planting the penalty at a perfect height for WaiBOP keeper Zac Speedy to palm away.
Unfortunately for Speedy, the resulting corner saw the ball scrambled around from one side of the penalty box to the other, eventually being tapped home by Kim from centimetres out.
Both teams then had the ball in the back of the net only to be denied by an offside flag - WaiBOP striker Federico Marquez the first to have his goal ruled out, before City winger Ryan De Vries suffered the same fate five minutes later.
Given a chance to make it 2-0 going into the break, Tade was again wasteful, blasting over with goal at his mercy right before halftime, but he made up for it after the interval, striking the goal which saw Auckland clinch the encounter.
Auckland now have 13 points through five games, one point ahead of Team Wellington who took down the Wellington Phoenix Reserves, 3-2.
First half goals from Ben Harris and Cole Peverley had Matt Calcott's side comfortably ahead in the Wellington derby, before Blake Powell made it 2-1 from the penalty spot in the 68th minute.
However, James Musa sealed both the win and the celebration of the year award with an 85th minute header, celebrating by using the corner flag as a fishing rod and reeling in teammate Luis Corrales.
Joel Stevens' 96th minute strike was only a consolation for the Reserves, who are in seventh on the table, only ahead of Southern United who fell to a 3-1 loss to Canterbury United.
Canterbury were led by two goals from Andre De Jong, coming back from a goal down to clinch the win which sees them move into third.
Hawke's Bay United sit in fourth after their 2-1 loss to Waitakere United on Thursday night.
Auckland City and Team Wellington have played a game fewer than their competition, with their eventual make-up game after the holiday break sure to have plenty of ramifications on the outlook of the Premiership ladder.
