Soccer: Frustrated Auckland held to home draw

Auckland City's Phil Edginton gets to the ball first in the clash with Otago United at Kiwitea St yesterday. The game ended scoreless. Photo / Dean Purcell

A first point of the season for him and his Otago United side brought a smile from coach Malcolm Fleming but for Auckland City it was another story of frustration at being held 0-0 by the never-say-die southerners at Kiwitea St yesterday.

Given City's home advantage and their failure to convert some half-decent chances into goals, the ASB Premiership result was fair enough.

It was the second of the day's scoreless draws following the same result in Christchurch where Canterbury United found Hawkes Bay United every bit as resolute at Linfield Park.

And while these teams had to settle for a mere point, Waitakere United helped themselves to another three in continuing their perfect start to the season with a 4-0 away win over YoungHeart Manawatu - their only disappointment in missing chances which could have made it even more decisive.

At David Farrington Park, Team Wellington broke through for their first win of the season in coming from behind to beat Waikato FC 3-1 but needed a 55th minute John Sutherland penalty and two late Hicham Kamri goals to do it.

The battle at Kiwitea St was another arm wrestle. The swirling wind made controlled play difficult and contributed to a scrappy first half as both teams chose to keep the ball in the air rather than looking for a more direct route to their opponent's goal.

The closest either team came to breaking the deadlock came in the 43rd minute when, in attempting to clear a well-struck Tristian Prattley freekick, City's Daniel Morgan almost headed the ball into his own goal.

A superb save from goalkeeper Jacob Spoonley spared his blushes.

The home side dominated the second spell but were thwarted by a resolute Otago defensive effort after they had needed another great Spoonley save and a header off the line from captain James Pritchett to keep out a long-range driven Nathan Knox freekick.

"I think we deserved a point," said a well-satisfied Fleming.

"We were under pressure in the last few minutes but generally I thought we defended well and contested every 50-50 ball. I would have been gutted to lose a third match in a row by a goal.

"If that is the team who are going to win the league I feel we all have a chance."

The feeling in the City camp was again one of disappointment.

"We dominated the game and had a lot of chances but could not finish them off," said City co-coach Ramon Tribulietx.

"The wind made it difficult in the first half but overall we played well but, at the end of the day, football is about scoring goals and we didn't put them away.

"At least we didn't concede."

Neither did Waitakere as they took their goal tally to 12 from four games while conceding only two in that time.

After an action-packed opening, Waitakere took the lead through Michael Gwyther in the 29th minute. Ryan De Vries added a second seven minutes later.

Neil Sykes replaced Tim Myers 10 minutes into the second half to become just the fourth player to play 100 times at this level.

He was soon able to celebrate another two-goal, seven-minute blitz as Roy Krishna and Allan Pearce struck to stretch the lead to four and take Pearce to the top of the golden boot.