KEY POINTS:
Wins for Waitakere United and Auckland City have given an all-too-familiar look to the top of the New Zealand Football Championship.
United beat Team Wellington 2-0 at Trusts Stadium to surge to a one-point lead at the head of the table.
In taking their 1-0 away win against
Otago United, City edged ahead of the pack to move into second on goal difference.
The second-to-fifth-placed teams, all having played seven games, are locked on 12 points with half their season gone. While the quartet, which also includes YoungHeart Manawatu, Waikato FC and Hawkes Bay United, retain championship-winning hopes, the reality is a little different as Chris Milicich's Waitakere also have the advantage of having two games in hand over their pursuers.
On what they showed yesterday in securing their fourth win in five outings and retaining their season-long unbeaten record, Waitakere will be tough to topple in their chase for a repeat NZFC triumph and with it automatic O-League representation.
"We kept a clean sheet and went top. That's all I can ask for," said Milicich. "It was a strong result. Once we fine-tuned things at halftime we were always going to click."
He needed to sort it out in midfield where Paul Seaman and regular partner Chris Bale played as if they had never met each other and were singing from a vastly different songsheet.
But elsewhere he had no concerns, apart from trying to fathom referee Peter O'Leary's insistence on ruining what should never have been a spiteful game by seven yellow cards.
Over-ruling what all but a linesman saw as one of the goals of the season - a Benjamin Totori special - only added to the frustration.
Those blips apart, Waitakere were in control for much of the game, restricting Team Wellington to a few half chances but without seriously testing goalkeeper Richard Gillespie.
After the disappointment of having one slice of individual brilliance denied, Totori repeated the effort less than five minutes into the second half to get United started.
The home side doubled their lead in the 62nd minute when Daniel Kopricvic let rip from outside the penalty area and watched in delight as the ball tore through rookie goalkeeper Jake Gleeson's hands into the net.
At Sunnyvale, Auckland City's Keryn Jordan nodded home after 22 minutes to score what proved to be the only goal of the match. The visitors had a second disallowed eight minutes later and five minutes from time needed a good Jacob Spoonley save to deny Otago's Stu Kelly the equaliser.
A great fifth-minute Seule Soromon strike from the edge of the penalty area was all visiting Hawkes Bay United needed to get up 1-0 against previous leaders Waikato FC at Ngaruawahia's Centennial Park.
