Soccer: Some straight talking at City HQ

Asked how he planned to turn last Sunday's disaster into a return to winning form, Auckland City coach Allan Jones replied simply: "I won't ... The players will."

Some soul-searching has gone on at City HQ this week after the 2-1 loss to Canterbury United in the New Zealand Football Championship curtain-raiser to the first test between the All Whites and Malaysia.

Jones insists there's been plenty to think about in preparing for tomorrow's clash with Otago United at Kiwitea St.

"The biggest disappointment was that the players who were given their chance in place of those missing did not respond.

"They have to look at themselves in that.

"We did not adapt to the surface. But that was no excuse."

Neither, he says, was the absence of key players.

"They [Canterbury] were without players too."

That was then.

Jones is back in the now and looking forward to the return of James Pritchett and Ross Nicholson from international duty, Liam Mulrooney from injury and, hopefully, Grant Young, after he returns from South Africa following his mother's death.

Jones knows the race has been thrown wide open.

"Not too many people would listen when I said from the start it would be close.

"I have said all along the competition is tighter this year.

"If any of the top three teams win all their remaining games they will win the league."

Jones has his sights set on that.

"If you look at our performances over the past four or five weeks, we have played some good football but you can't take 50 per cent of your first choice team out and expect to produce more of the same.

"Having said that, you will never hear me using injuries as an excuse. They are part of the game, and you have to expect to work through them and the challenges they bring."

He is not underestimating the team from the deep south, who are also in the bottom half of the table.

"They have had a rusty spell.

"But any team in this league is capable of taking points off every other team.

"If you look back over the season, everyone apart from Hawkes Bay have taken points off each other."

With the big prize - a guaranteed trip to the Oceania Club Championships - only five games away, the pressure is on.

Apart from Hawkes Bay the other seven teams have a shot at the top five and a chance of joining the NZFC round-robin winner in the championships and with it the hope of going all the way to Fifa's Club World Championship.

Not surprisingly, all want to take the short route by winning the league round.

Realistically, only Auckland City, YoungHeart Manawatu and Canterbury United are in that race.

The key could be the City-Manawatu clash at Kiwitea St on March 18, but Jones will not want it to come down to that.

He will be looking for maximum points from the next three games - against Otago, Team Wellington and Hawkes Bay - to build a buffer.

Mick Waitt's Team Wellington can do Jones a favour by taking points from YoungHeart on Sunday.

Waitakere United, now back in fourth, are also at home this weekend with a Sunday clash with Waikato FC in what could be the game of the round as Waikato chase the points they will almost certainly need to remain in contention.