Young brigade do Hawke's Bay proud | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Every  flea-bitten, dishevelled mongrel has its day in the unrepentant alleyway of sports where the lunatic fringe prevails against insurmountable odds.

Yesterday it was the turn of the Kinetic Electrical Hawke's Bay United, who rose from the ashes in Napier to register only their second victory of the ASB Premiership after six rounds of competition.

It wasn't just anyone they took three points off. The opposition were defending champions Waitakere United, who quickly slunk off to the bowels of the clubrooms to contemplate what-ifs after midfielder Conor Tinnion's 77th-minute opportunistic goal brought joy to an ever-dwindling Bluewater Stadium faithful.

Interim Bay United coach Chris Greatholder hugged his captain, Bill Robertson, at the final whistle in what was a thoroughly deserved victory after weeks of soul searching that left players and coaching staff gnashing their teeth in sheer frustration.

Oddly enough, the result seemed even more implausible considering the players who took to the field were vastly the younger brigade.

Centreback Robertson was reduced to a spectator, serving a match suspension for collecting two yellow cards in the 6-2 flogging at the hands of Team Wellington the previous Sunday.

No Leon Birnie, no Chris McIvor, no goalkeeper Richard Gillespie while journeyman Adam Cowan was banished to the bench. No Robertson, either, talking for everyone on the paddock as defensive midfielder Stephen Hindmarch slipped on the skipper's band around his arm.

The predominantly young and restless were left to fend for themselves and did so with aplomb. No babysitters required, thank you.

"It was a lot different today to last week and I don't have my voice today, either," a poker-faced but relaxed Greatholder said, satisfied his young charges had toiled relentlessly and delivered everything asked off them.

"Last week it didn't come out right but this week the least we could do was give our 100 per cent, and there was no one in there who didn't do that today and that makes me really proud of the boys today."

Unequivocally that's how the rookie premiership coach wants his troops to play the beautiful game.

Beautiful it certainly wasn't but then no one ever said success comes wrapped up in dainty, ribbon-clad boxes under a tree.

The Bay boys executed crisp passes, kept a healthy distance from each other before moving into spaces. They put their bodies on the line with goal-saving tackles and, most importantly, didn't drop their heads when things turned a little pear shaped.

"I don't want to play a negative brand of football. I like to play in a certain way but, at the same time, you have to be realistic and sensible," Greatholder said.

"We played champions today so we wanted to keep the ball as close to us as possible," he emphasised, saying every player had to make himself an option to his teammate off the ball.

"Sometimes you'd make a 10 or 15-yard dash and not get the ball but you have to keep doing it and keep doing it, and that's what success looks like."

Egos were left in the duffle bags in the changing rooms and, for once, no one can say they are dead certain to start this Sunday against whipping boys YoungHeart Manawatu, who Canterbury United flogged 9-1 yesterday in Christchurch.

Since assuming the mantle of caretaker coach after Matt Chandler dropped the bundle and headed off to Australia after three rounds, Greatholder has had the burning desire to instil a philosophy of a laissez-faire environment.

That task became harder when the franchise board imposed a clause demanding he stick to Chandler's template, thus not "rocking the mothership" on her course to secure the Bay's maiden play-off berth in the eight-season history of the premiership.

The players were assured of having their way, with the board ruling out any suggestion of a player power struggle.

"This is it - we didn't have enough competition for places but we're still badly unbalanced in terms of the squad with two or three specialist defenders."

The changing of guards was no better reflected than when last week's bench boys, Matt Hastings, Tom Biss and Stu Wilson, all started yesterday.

"That's the way I want things to be. I don't want people to come in and think they've got a guaranteed position where they don't have to work as hard as anyone else.

"I made some big calls today. Adam Cowan was dropped. On Tom Biss' performance, you know, Tom should get the shirt next weekend, in my opinion," Greatholder said. He then qualified: "Bissy can be like that but he can be massively inconsistent, so what I've got to try to do is help him with his consistency."

It is painfully obvious the Bay are a team of several good individual performers, but have failed to find a common denominator as a commune.

"We haven't had a team since I've been over. My team need a vision and a culture of togetherness, and that's starting to come through now."

He didn't think yesterday's result was a fluke although, admittedly, they have rode their luck a little before.

"I think our desire to win today was a little bit more than that," explained Greatholder, pleased some people have stayed loyal despite several quarters writing them off this summer.

"It's nice to have three points and that's all it is, at the end of the day," he said, mindful he now has players on the bench who care enough to want to run on to the pitch to make a difference.

"They probably would be a little grumpy with me that they weren't in the first XI but that's football and that's why you have to make calls that are best for a team."

Second-choice goalkeeper Shaun Peta selflessly put his blinding performance down to a team effort but the gloved one took more shots than a tequila bar, thwarting no fewer than 10 credible attempts at goal.

"After last week's performance I had to step up because it was pretty patchy, to be honest," Peta said, adding they stuck to a game plan of maintaining their shape amid patience and discipline.

Waitakere coach Neil Emblen described his team's first-half effort as "abysmal", saying they simply weren't "at the races, really".

Even though his men created several chances in the second spell, with Peta equal to the occasion, the London Olympics-bound NZ under-23 coach felt Waitakere still didn't deserve anything from the game, purely because of their shoddy start.

"Hawke's Bay had a lot more players who were in the game than we were," he said as the predominantly youthful visitors, including former Bay United striker Andy Bevan, tended to stack players on one side of the field in almost a street-gang mentality rather than resorting to some peripheral vision to switch play from the busy traffic.

"It shows the boys who came in today weren't the same team. We've given some people a few chances and they haven't really grabbed them," Emblen said, adding they had lost three premiership games which wasn't good enough by their standards.

With leaders Auckland City undefeated, he felt the loss made retaining the title near impossible. "Hawke's Bay have come back from a defeat and they were all up for the game, wanting to put things right."