KEY POINTS:
Waitakere United fans must be feeling short-changed. The New Zealand Football Championship front-runners are hardly piling on the goals with yesterday's 1-0 win over Team Wellington at Trusts Stadium the sixth time in seven victories they have sneaked home by a goal.
Only twice since their 3-1 win over Waikato FC in the opening round have United scored more than one goal in a game, those in 2-1 home wins over Canterbury United and Hawkes Bay United.
To counter that, they have also been miserly in defence, conceding just six goals in 10 outings and never more than one in a game.
That defensive resolve, even without key defender and captain Danny Hay, was key yesterday as they denied a Team Wellington side who, without playmaker Graham Little, lacked imagination and attacking prowess in front of the Waitakere goal.
Goalkeeper and stand-in captain Michael Utting was largely unemployed as was James Bannatyne between the Wellington posts.
Despite playing into a strong wind and with a 6-1 corner count against them, Waitakere dominated the first half.
Commins Menapi gathered from Allan Pearce after six minutes but hit the post. The home side, with strong games from Graham Pearce, Hoani Edwards and Jakub Sinkora - in his first outing - dominated in midfield but too often attacking chances were wasted by poor passing.
The Waitakere faithful will be forever grateful that referee Gabriel Streza deemed there should be one minute of stoppage time at the end of the spell.
With 37 seconds of added time remaining, Edwards pounced on to a loose ball, fed Menapi who broke into the penalty area, drew Bannatyne away from his line and angled the ball into the Wellington goal.
Scoring chances remained scarce after the break, with the visitors' best chance coming midway through the half, when Costa Barbarouses whipped a good ball across the face of the United goal, but David Batty failed to get a foot to it.
From one of four Team Wellington corners in the second half, the home side charged forward but a terrible ball from Allan Pearce to Menapi wasted a good two-on-one opportunity.
"In the first half we played some good football," said Waitakere coach Steve Cain, who bemoaned the struggle to find a fit team with eight players ruled out. "We were worth the three points."
Wellington coach Mick Waitt refused to blame Little's absence - he is in Japan to watch his brother Bryan play for Auckland City in the Club World Cup - saying that it was more a case of a poor first half costing his team dear.
Elsewhere, in an abbreviated round, home teams took a hiding.
Led by two goals, including a retaken penalty by Benjamin Totori, YoungHeart Manawatu thrashed Otago United 5-0 after they had been given the 21st minute lead when Otago defender Phil Elder headed a Nelson Sale cross into his own goal.
The other four goals were scored by their Solomon Islanders, with Totori well supported by Sale and Alick Maemae with one each.
Stuart Kelly scored twice as Canterbury United beat Waikato United 4-0 in Hamilton. Kelly headed home a minute before half-time to give the visitors their lead. Brent Fisher, with his first of the season, doubled the advantage 20 minutes into the second half before their top scorer Henry Faarodo and Kelly completed the rout which earned Canterbury their third straight win and a share of third place with Auckland City.
