Soccer: Goalie guides Central to No 3

The Central United captain and man-of-the-match Ross Nicholson collects the trophy and a third winner's medal. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Central United won the Chatham Cup for the third time in their history when they beat Palmerston North Marist 2-1 in the final at North Harbour Stadium last night.

Central won in 1997 and 1998 and their captain last night, goalkeeper Ross Nicholson, has been in all three winning sides.

Marist were appearing in the final for the first time and they did not let their supporters down. Light rain made the playing surface tricky and but for some poor finishing they could well have upset the favourites.

Central could be thankful that Nicholson was on his best form and he deservedly won the Jack Batty Cup as player of the final.

Marist were unlucky to be 1-0 down at halftime.

They had dominated for long spells, with Ian Sandbrook given enormous space to set up his front runners. The tall Peter Halstead won a string of balls in the air, but there was rarely anyone feeding off the chances he provided.

And in front of goal the Palmerston North side were spendthrift. Within the first 10 minutes Nick Darbyshire and Kazu Sugiura had shot wide, and twice good crosses requiring only a touch sped across the Central goal unmolested.

Central's strikers Paul Urlovic and Heath McCormick were feeding off scraps, but in the 21st minute Urlovic scored in a melee against the run of play.

He was fouled to the right of the penalty area, Dean Tallentire headed the free-kick across the goal, McCormick tangled with the goalkeeper, Sandbrook volleyed his attempted clearance against the bar, and Urlovic slammed home the rebound.

Five minutes later Sandbrook had a close-range shot blocked by Nicholson and in the 37th minute, Nicholson pulled off the save of the half when he turned away a fierce shot by Halstead after a good run on the right by Darbyshire.

Central created a host of chances at the start of the second half and McCormick had the ball in the net after 58 minutes, only to be ruled offside.

Urlovic and Paul Seaman were off target and goalkeeper Hayden Englefield saved well from Jonathan Smith.

With 10 minutes to go Central seemed to have sealed the victory when Neil Sykes hammered in the rebound after Urlovic's shot had been blocked by the goalkeeper.

But within a couple of minutes Marist had reduced the deficit with Nathan Hill heading in a corner.

Sanjay Singh had a chance for the equaliser soon after, but his close-range header sailed high over the bar.