KEY POINTS:
CHATHAM CUP FINAL
East Coast Bays 1 Dunedin Technical 0
For a club that had never won the Chatham Cup, East Coast Bays set a fairly lofty target this season.
They wanted to get their hands on the famous 85-year-old trophy for the first time, despite the fact they had never previously progressed past the quarter-finals. In truth, however, they had little else to play for.
In beating Dunedin Technical yesterday, they proved to their federation bosses at United Soccer 1 how regrettable their decision had been to prevent their teams from playing in the old Northern Premier League.
Teams were spending too much money on the competition, federation boss Keith Johnson said. Clubs should build up the standard of all their players, Johnson continued.
Worthy objectives but naive. Clubs just wanted things the way they had always been and fought to the bitter end. Yesterday, East Coast Bays were still fighting about it and made no better statement than winning the Cup.
"We would do everything to go back to the old Northern League where you play from Auckland to Tauranga because you need a strong league there," Bays coach Willy Gerdsen said.
"There are only three good teams in the US1 league - Waitakere, Glenfield and ourselves.
"You have results like 9-2, 8-0, 6-0. We won the league by 17 points. Who is this developing? It's not developing anybody. We would love to go back but it's not up to us.
"We focused totally on the Chatham Cup because the league is just not up to the standard."
Yesterday, they set the standard. They controlled proceedings against the southerners but had to rely on an own goal to claim victory.
It was a sloppy goal for Dunedin Technical to concede. A long throw from man-of-the-match Ryan Zoghby was inadvertently flicked on by Dunedin defender John Chisholm and, as much as team-mate Blair Scoullar tried, it ended up in the back of the net.
"It's a hell of a way to lose a cup final, an own goal. It's sickening," Dunedin coach Mike Fridge said as the temperature dropped noticeably in the early evening.
"It's just disappointing. We didn't play as well as we could have. To be fair, East Coast Bays didn't allow us to. I'm gutted for the boys."
East Coast Bays crucially dominated the middle of the park through All Whites midfielder Jeff Campbell, skipper Leigh Kenyon and Joe Bresnahan. And they were rarely troubled at the back against a side who tried to get the ball forward too quickly to strikers Ross McKenzie and Aaron Burgess, who came into the match on the back of 29 goals in all competitions this season.
Their biggest scare came courtesy of a George Suri mistake in the opening half but goalkeeper Aidan Gwilt beat Burgess to the ball. Burgess also had a chance inside the box after a mazy run but his shot lacked power.
For all their possession, however, East Coat Bays failed to carve out many clearcut scoring chances. Jack Beguely was played in on goal but Dunedin goalkeeper Nick Tarrant got a crucial touch on his shot while Tarrant also turned around another second-half strike from Beguely.
East Coast Bays were delirious at the final whistle. They had achieved their goal. Now they just want to get back into a league they know they belong in.
In the Women's Knockout Cup, Lynn-Avon United continued their dominance of the competition with a 6-2 win over Christchurch's Western. It was their eighth win in the 15 years of the competition.
