FOOTBALL: Must-win situation but Bay stay alive

ANENDRA SINGH | 8th March 2010

If you remove all the variables from a game then it becomes quite hard to picture Canterbury United as play-off contenders.

After the New Zealand Football Championship catch-up match against Hawke's Bay United in Napier on Saturday, the visitors would have caught their flight back home asking some soul-searching questions about their next match against Team Wellington in the capital city this weekend.

If Canterbury were reduced to playing 60 minutes of the 94-minute soccer match as a catch-up affair at the Bluewater Stadium then the credit must indubitably go to the Bay boys who drew first blood and kept their ascendancy with another goal into the breather.

Canterbury coach Keith Braithwaite told SportToday if they had scored a goal and maintained that into halftime it would have made a big difference.

"We gave you the second goal because we gave the ball away and you punished us," said Braithwaite.

"We took it to you in the second half and pulled a goal back. I'm disappointed we didn't get something out of it in the end," he said, accepting Bay applied pressure before adding every game was a must-win for every team this weekend.

But Bay coach Matt Chandler, who felt the visitors weren't a bad side and would make the play-offs, said the Bay's style inhibited Canterbury.

"They didn't play badly, we just played exceptionally well. The first half showed the management staff got it right."

Chandler, relishing five out of six wins at home, commended reserve keeper Shaun Peta for a sterling match after first-choice Richard Gillespie watched from the sidelines as a result of a red card last weekend against Waitakere for taking out striker Roy Krishna.

"The first save he made early on set the tone. If he was at another franchise he might be No 1 keeper," said Chandler of Peta, who made a clinical save off Tom Lancaster in just the second minute.

The hosts made numerous raids at the Canterbury goal but either keeper Tom Batty or poor finishing kept them scoreless.

However, winger Andrew Abba changed that in the 16th minute after midfielder George Barbarouses and leftback Matt Hastings combined to find the Solomon Islander at the near post. Abba's left-foot placement didn't give Batty a chance for the 1-0 lead.

In the 31st minute Barbarouses provided a ball striker Leon Birnie slotted into the net but referee Anthony Riley deemed it a foul.

Six minutes later Birnie could not be denied after he beat two defenders with deft dribbling skills before leaving Batty for dead and extending the lead to 2-0.

That goal came from a defensive blunder from rightback Tom Burns, who like other teammates, lacked peripheral vision to switch play away from the busy traffic areas when distributing the ball from defence to attack.

Only Lancaster, who provided a well-timed pass to striker Russell Kamo in the 56th minute to narrow the lead to 2-1, and right wing Aaron Clapman posed any serious threats to the Bay.

With their backs against the wall and sensing they could seal their semifinal spot with a victory, the Dragons attacked but Bay skipper Jonathon Taylor made two match-defining tackles to deny Canterbury a draw.

In the 79th minute, the former All Whites centreback read Kamo's mind well as the forward prepared to hoof the ball into the net from the 18m box, much to the relief of the Bluewater faithful.

Said Chandler: "When we didn't have the ball our discipline was very good. I don't think they deserved to draw. We deserved to win."

He felt if the Bay played with a similar attitude this Sunday against unbeaten Auckland City "anything can happen".

"Football gives you those sorts of chances. We've got a chance and I'm glad the boys have put themselves in that picture for next week," he said after losing 2-1 away to Auckland last time.

Three points adrift of third place, the Bay have a mathematical chance provided Wellington and Otago United suffer heavy defeats in their final matches.

Canterbury will be out to nail Team Wellington before their final match against Auckland but can still lose both games and make the semifinals only if Otago and Team Wellington lose their final matches too.

The Cantabrians also have the a healthy plus-10 goal differential in their favour if they are equal on points with the Bay on -3 goal difference.

Fourth-placed Wellington, on 18 points, have one match left, against Canterbury while fifth-placed Otago United are now in a dodgy position where victory in their final match against Youngheart Manawatu will lift them to 20 points but may still prove futile in claiming a play-off spot if the abacus is pulled out.