KEY POINTS:
As decision day draws nearer, Shane Rufer and his YoungHeart Manawatu team continue to put real pressure on New Zealand Soccer.
Handed a shape-up or ship-out message as the make-up of the New Zealand Football Championship for the next three seasons is put under the microscope, the Palmerston North franchise continue to make the play where it counts - on the football field.
Bouncing back from their first loss of the season a week earlier, Manawatu yesterday hammered Waikato FC 6-1 in Hamilton to consolidate their second place on the points table and again show that they deserve to hold their place while questions should, surely, be asked of others.
Ahead 3-1 at halftime, Manawatu romped home and consigned Waikato to the bottom of the heap with an emphatic effort.
Benjamin Totori scored a goal in each half top to set up Manawatu's fourth win of the season.
His 21st minute opener gave the visitors the early lead but one which was short-lived as Brad Scott equalised within two minutes only to have Trent Watson re-establish Manawatu's one-goal advantage again within two minutes. Hayden Laird made it 3-1 before the break. The second half was all Manawatu as Ian Robinson, Totori and Ian Sandbrook scored.
With a decision on the likelihood of a second NZFC team making it into next year's Oceania Champions League due this week, Manawatu are keeping themselves in the frame.
Waitakere United coach Steve Cain is despairing. Despite being at the top of the table, he has real concerns.
For 20 minutes against Hawkes Bay United on Saturday, his side played as well as they have all season.
Ahead 2-0 and seemingly poised to cruise to a comfortable victory, they switched off, became ordinary and, in the end, scraped home 2-1 on the back of a fantastic late Michael Utting save.
"The only positive for me is that this season we play as badly as we did and won 2-1, whereas last season, if we played like that or, in many cases a lot better, we lost 2-1," said Cain. "Full credit to them [Hawkes Bay], they came back really well and pretty much the last 20 minutes was all them."
Well-taken headed goals from Jeff Campbell and Hoani Edwards had the home side ahead.
But as they fell back to the ordinary, the visitors picked up their game and were justly rewarded in the 64th minute when Ian Fyfe spotted Utting off his line and chipped home from 30 metres.
In Christchurch, Auckland City used another of their get-out-of-jail cards to snatch a late 1-1 draw with Canterbury United who had gone ahead in the 49th minute through Henry Fa'arodo.
Dean Gordon's long-range 87th minute strike got City back on terms with three minutes to play.
Then, in a touch of the dramatic a minute later, Paul Urlovic could have sealed an unlikely win only to have his penalty attempt saved by Adam Highfield, who then produced another heroic save to deny Gordon's attempt from the rebound.
In Wellington, all the scoring action came in the first half as Nate Winkel gave the home side the lead after just 35s. Dara McGrenaghan, somewhat against the run of play, equalised in the 21st minute but captain Andy Barron scored right on halftime to put Team Wellington back in front as well as complete the scoring for the match.
