Soccer: Backyard battle for top dog

Waitakere United's Roy Krishna. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The gap between the two Auckland teams in the NZ Football Championship and the rest shows no sign of closing.

A 1-1 draw between Waitakere United and Auckland City at Fred Taylor Park on Saturday, coupled with wins by Otago United and Waikato FC yesterday, left the Auckland teams four points clear at the top and favourites to play the grand final.

Otago United, the only team with a realistic chance of challenging for a top-two finish, must beat Waitakere on Sunday's trip north to be in contention.

They will at least take heart from yesterday's come-from-behind 3-1 win over Team Wellington.

In Saturday's derby, too many gilt-edged chances went begging in a game which should have produced a hatful of goals, but in the end had to settle for just one apiece in the second spell.

Playing in perfect conditions in front of a season-high 2000-plus crowd, neither team was able to turn good lead-up play into goals.

One of those chances fell to City's Chad Coombes but he hit the upright. Eight minutes into the second spell Coombes was, however, able to celebrate his first goal of the campaign.

Left-back Ian Hogg made ground before firing in a cross for Coombes to head home.

The home crowd came alive in the 70th minute when City failed to clear a left-wing corner and in the scramble Tim Myers got the final touch and his second goal of the season.

Waitakere turned the screws, producing good chances for Benjamin Totori and Ryan de Vries, but neither found the target.

De Vries, on for Roy Krishna with 15 minutes to play, later scored a hat-trick as Waitakere beat Auckland City in a thrilling Lion Foundation National Youth League clash.

"It was a really good, tight game," said Auckland coach Paul Posa after watching his team retain their lead on goal difference and with two games in hand. "They're a very good team and they raised their game from last week.

"Both teams played well and had periods of dominance, but neither could afford to lose and I think that was reflected in the way they played. I think we can still play better but I can have no complaints about the result."

Waitakere player-coach Neil Emblen, without the injured All White Aaron Scott in his defence, was a tower of strength flanked by youngsters Myers and Jack Pelter.

He felt his team had come close to snatching all three points. "I thought we were really unlucky at the end," he said. "In the last 20 minutes we had four clear chances to win the game.

"For 20 minutes when Auckland scored they were superb, but I thought we dominated after we equalised."

The Jeff Campbell factor has become the telling one for Waikato FC.

After struggling all season to add to their first-round win, Che Bunce's team have won two on the trot since Campbell joined in the mid-season transfer window.

Down 0-2 to YoungHeart Manawatu at halftime in Palmerston North yesterday after Daniel Benson and golden-boot leader Seule Soromon had scored in the 18th and 45th minutes, Waikato stormed back.

Campbell fired home through goalkeeper Ross Nicholson's hands from 25m four minutes into the second half and added the equaliser 20 minutes later. A minute later Michael Gwyther raced on to a through-ball and unleashed a left-foot shot for the win.

Otago were a goal down inside three minutes at Carisbrook when Chris Davies headed home to give Team Wellington the lead. Ben Light levelled the scores on the half-hour and Dave Dugdale put them ahead seconds before the end of first-half added time.

Ryan Fachnie made it safe for the southerners with the only goal of the second spell.

After the Hawkes Bay and Canterbury players had warmed up at Park Island in Napier, the officials decreed conditions were unfit for play and called it off without a ball being kicked.