Soccer: Western skipper's long wait for triumph

Eastern Suburbs' Mark Webber is caught under Western Suburbs' Rupert Ryan as he competes for the ball. Picture / Dean Purcell

Western Suburbs 3 Eastern Suburbs 0
(on penalties)

When Jon Harahap hoisted the Jack Batty Trophy in triumph as player of the day in Western Suburbs' Chatham Cup victory over Eastern Suburbs, it was the culmination of a long road to cup glory.

Western from Wellington beat Eastern from Auckland on penalties after the cup final had remained scoreless for more than two hours at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday.

Harahap's cup travail began eight years ago when he was in the Dunedin Technical side beaten 5-0 by Central in the final. The following year Technical made amends by beating Waitakere City 4-0. But Harahap missed that redemption because he had headed off overseas for a spell of OE. The 31-year-old Western captain finally got to celebrate a cup victory after three years with that club, which celebrates its centenary this year.

Harahap may have been player of the day but Western's hero was tall goalkeeper Phil Imray, who saved all three of Eastern's penalty attempts. The 22-year-old from Worcester in England reckoned it was the best day of his life.

The final lacked goals but there were shots aplenty, boundless enthusiasm and skill levels that belied the fact that cup games are contested these days between teams ranked at a third level below the NZ Knights and the national league.

The lack of goals was surprising because Eastern had shared six with Central before beating them on penalties in one semifinal while Western beat Caversham 4-0 in the other.

The best chances of the first half fell to action man Leo Shin for Eastern and Western's Rupert Ryan, who was thwarted by goalkeeper Sean Dowling in the 31st minute and was narrowly wide with a header.

In the 50th minute Imray, back-pedalling furiously, tipped a clever lob from Andrew Webber over the bar. In the 77th Webber headed a cross from Matt Wallace on to the crossbar.

In the resulting shootout, Ryan, Phil Cudd and Michael Smith blasted their penalties home, Imray saved Eastern's attempts and the cup was Western's for the third time in their history.