FOOTBALL: Card call results in draw for United | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Dive or done from behind?

Sacre bleus, it's not as contentious as Thierry Henri's luck-of-the-Irish soccer saga, but all the same, it's a burning question for the Hawke's Bay United camp after they returned from Christchurch last night after a 1-all draw against Canterbury United in their New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC) match.

After an earlier warning in the first half at English Park, referee Mirko Benischke flashed a yellow card in the face of nippy Bay striker Andrew Abba (pictured) yesterday in the 86th minute for diving in the penalty box.

"When you go past a defender and you are brought down then you don't dive because there's no point in that," a bemused head coach Matt Chandler told SportToday last night before boarding a flight from the airport.

"In that situation you go for goal. Andrew was also cautioned for that in the first half when he appealed for a penalty and I don't think that's fair," said Chandler, who felt if the Solomon Islander had issues last season then they had ironed them out.

Last season, the 19-year-old pocket rocket was advised to beef up so as not to come off second best against lanky defenders in the box.

"I know he'll definitely overcome it," said Chandler, claiming even his Canterbury counterpart, Keith Braithwaite, felt the card call should have resulted in a penalty to the Bay.

Nevertheless, while Abba is in the golden-boot running with three goals to date, yesterday he turned provider for fellow countryman Joachim Rande in the 20th minute to silence a cantankerous Cantabrian crowd with a crafty pull back.

"We were great in the first 20 minutes or so and Joachim Rande got his first goal for the franchise," he said of the 19-year-old Maycenvale United striker, who was pivotal in laying crosses to Abba in their 2-1 victory over Otago United at home in the previous round.

The remaining spell of the first 45 minutes belonged to the hosts. Consequently Canterbury levelled in the 39th minute courtesy of a 30m pile driver from Tom Lancaster when Bay skipper Chris Greatholder's clearance from an Aaron Clapham cross clipped defender Sam Halligan as the ensuing shot caught keeper Richard Gillespie by surprise.

Overall, Chandler was delighted with the performance of his defensive four - Halligan, Stu Ferguson, Phil Clark and Matt Hastings - in the absence of captain Jonathon Taylor, serving a match suspension for a red card against Otago.

English import centreback Ferguson copped a yellow card for an aggressive tackle on midfielder Andy Pitman in the 31st minute and took some stick from the parochial crowd for his troubles for the rest of the game.

Latest signing George Barbarouses, who didn't escape the referee's book in the 66th minute, got a thumbs up from Chandler for keeping the fire stoked in the midfield.

While Rande's substitution with Napier Marist's towering striker, Danny Wilson, raised eyebrows among the Canterbury scribes, Chandler defended the move, saying the Bay needed someone up front to hold up the ball a little.

He paid tribute to the hosts, claiming their class deserved recognition considering they had beaten Waikato United, who beat the Bay 4-2 in Ngaruawhaia in the first round. Chandler felt his troops still needed to work on things before finding cohesiveness that will make the Abba-Rande combination hum and evolve into a "lethal partnership with time".

"We need to score more goals and find a combination with more craft and ferociousness and go forward."

It annoyed him that the Bay had a bye this weekend because of an O-League match before hosting bottom dwellers Wellington United - who lost 2-1 to Otago yesterday - at the Bluewater Stadium, Napier, in a fortnight.

"It's quite annoying because we want to keep the rhythm going."

• Results - page 16.