Don’t go spreading this all around or anything but you know those quiet doubts about Auckland City from last week? Well they’re looking pretty legit right about now. ACFC could only draw with Southern United at home, the second time that they’ve been held to a draw by that lot, and not only does it keep them out of first spot but, with Eastern Suburbs beating Team Wellington, it drops them down to third.

This is a big deal. As City focused plenty upon in their own match report, the two New Zealand qualifiers for the OFC Champions League will be the minor premiership winner and the grand final winner. And if they happen to be the same team then the second spot goes not to the loser of the grand final but the second placed team on the regular season table. Thus if Auckland City finish third or fourth then they’ll have to win the grand final to get back into the OFC CL in 2019. They should still manage it… but it’s one to watch out for. Things are getting funky at the top and, as mentioned last week, City still have to play that Eastern Suburbs team twice and they’re away from home in six of their last eight games.

Micah Lea’alafa scored the first goal, number one for the season for him. Just his second start of the season too and this time they remembered to put him on the teamsheet so they get to keep the point. But Ben Wade levelled it up and there ya go. It’s not just the result that matters here though, nor the difficult schedule that’s to follow. City also all of a sudden simply don’t have the far and away best squad anymore. They were without the injured Emiliano Tade against SU and remember how Ryan De Vries was unavailable for personal reasons last week? Turns out those personal reasons had a little something to do with a trip to Japan to sign with J-League 2 side FC Gifu – Takuyu Iwata’s old team.

Add that to Daewook Kim’s departure and Clayton Lewis heading to Scunthorpe before the season and City’s depth is being tested like we’re not used to. And that’s meaning opportunities to fringe kiwi players. Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi has settled into a defensive role and Harry Edge just started consecutive games for the first time. Alfie Rogers got his maiden start this season (he’s a domesticated Englishman, but close enough). Callum McCowatt and Cam Howieson have played every game so far but Reid Drake’s starting to become a regular off the bench. Wonder if Kris Bright will come into a more prominent role as well.

This was Southern’s fifth away draw in six games. Even still, they’ll be stoked to finally return home next week after playing the three best teams away all in a row. All things considered, coming away from that with two points isn’t half bad.

Southern also popped up with a bit of news the following day when they announced that they’d signed Alex Risdale from Tasman. Risdale started off as a regular for Tassie but hasn’t been seen so much lately. Very handy signing, right as Southern have had a couple injuries – most notably Garbhan Coughlin. Their next game? Home to Tasman, of course.

Eastern Suburbs make a big deal out of only having one non-kiwi in their whole squad. Team Wellington aren’t much worse off so when these two teams met at Bill McKinlay Park in Auckland there were only three import players between the two starting XIs: Derek Tieku (England) for Suburbs and Mario Barcia (Argentina) and Roy Kayara (New Caledonia) for TW. Welly also brought Sekou Diane (France) and Eric Molloy (Ireland) off the bench.

Lots of locals and lots of action too, as Suburbs confirmed their status as contenders by coming from 1-0 down at the half (Nate Hailemariam with another goal) to win it 2-1 thanks to goals from Tieku and what was eventually classified as an own goal set up by Andre De Jong. ADJ’s deflected winner came right at the death, capping off a thrilling end-to-end contest. It also ruffles the top of the table up nicely and Suburbs have a great chance to take advantage of that as they go to Hamilton next week – The Michael Built Derby!

Good luck to Wanderers with that one. Suburbs don’t score a lot of goals but they always score – this game made it six games in a row and eight out of ten this season with at least two in the net. Lately it seems like their defence has tightened up to match too, Tim Payne in particular doing a good job at the back there. Nobody wants to play against a team in that kind of form, they’ve just done the double over the defending champs. Five games unbeaten with three wins in a row.

By the way, they conceded nine goals in six games with Zac Speedy in goal and have conceded three in four since Louie Caunter took over. As for the TeeDubs, if you take out their games against Eastern Suburbs then they look like the defending champs that they are. Their only other loss came away to Waitakere. You could say at least they’ve gotten these two ES games out of the way… except there’s a pretty high chance they play them in the semis, so yeah. Third time lucky, maybe.

Nobody that won this week needed a win more than Hawke’s Bay. After a four-game unbeaten start to things, defying a mini exodus of players from last year’s squad, The Bay then went six games without victory. Some tough games in there: Southern scored late to win in Invercargill, Auckland City, Waitakere and Canterbury are gonna compete with most teams. But you could tell they needed the break when it came and you knew they needed a few breaks on the pitch after it.

Following Alex Palezevic’s equaliser last week to save face against Hamilton, they got plenty of luck against the WeeNix in the televised game. Brett Angell had his team sitting deep and frustrating the possession-happy Nix. Really well organised but not with a whole lot of quality on the ball. However they defended very well and were able to shut down the passing lanes in the attacking third. James McGarry must have had half a dozen blocked shots in this game. HBU they got the luck they’d been without for so long as a dodgy penalty call allowed Birhanu Taye to very casually put them in front before Gavin Hoy tackled goalie Keegan Smith early in the second half to make it 2-0.

Some uncharacteristic stand-off defence allowed Sarpreet Singh to set up Ollie Whyte but then Adam Thurston smashed in a lovely strike from outside the box to make it 3-1. The WeeNix did plenty to impress in the second half, Singh was magnificent after the break. He then scored a beauty of a goal to make it 3-2 but they weren’t able to find the equaliser that they arguably deserved.

Hawke’s Bay were good though. They’ve got pace on the break with Wesley Cain and a dependable, experienced figure at the back with Bill Robertson. Palezevic and Taye are a couple impressive young kiwi midfielders and Adam Thurston is a tidy Englishman who played his youth footy in the Manchester United academy. Lots of impressive players in that starting XI. Their problem is that there’s bugger all depth to work with. Hence why HBU are the team that rotates their teams less than anyone, with Ruben Parker, Hayden McHenery, Bill Robertson, Alex Palezevic and Birhanu Taye all starting every game this season. Graham Craven has only missed one game (last week vs Hamilton). Adam Thurston and Gavin Hoy have started all but one and came off the bench in the others.

That’s probably why they faded as the games piled up before Christmas. And probably why they’ve had a bit of a boost since they were able to take a break. Surprisingly all three of their wins have come away from home.

That was Keegan Smith’s first appearance for the Reserves this season. It’s mostly been Ollie Sail, with Smith holding his place on the bench for the first team even after he was dropped for Italiano (who has started twice for the WeeNix). But with the Reserves playing the opening act of a double header with the A-League team it meant an opportunity for both he and Sarpreet Singh to get ninety minutes in – Singh has been travelling with the Phoenix the last couple weeks and in and out of those squads all season. Logan Rogerson’s had a bit of that too.

That meant we were working with a full-strength WeeNix team (not counting first-teamers) and when these lads are able to get all their guys together they’re a handful. They got pumped 4-1 by Team Wellington last week without Singh, Rogerson or Smith. With them they still lost but they did so with a strong performance. Their link-ups in the middle, with the likes of Singh, Whyte and Sutton, are fun to watch… their problem is that they just aren’t big enough, aren’t physical enough.

Craven and Robertson ate Ben Waine alive no matter how keen he was. Even Singh, he was genuinely sublime at times with the ball at his feet but then there were also several other moments when he was easily shoved aside and out of possession. That’s why he isn’t a factor in the first team yet. Sorta par for the course with such a young team in this competition though. Take away the first two silly goals and they’d feel they oughta have won it.

The battle for fourth went roughly as advertised. Waitakere were strong at home, making a lot of the early play, but Canterbury scored first to keep up their hot run of results. Travis Nicklaw thought he’d buried one just in time to claim it (it went down as an OG in the official dossier) which meant now CU had scored twelve goals since they’d last conceded. But they were a dozen and done when Godwin Darkwa levelled things (deservedly) in the second half.

That was the way it ended, 1-1. It’s a result that keep The Dragons in fourth, one point ahead of Waitakere, but which keeps them from extending that distance and overtaking Auckland City. So there are at least two clubs in the Big Smoke who enjoyed that Darkwa goal (his first of the season, btw). Keeps things nice and frisky for WU with Canterbury playing Auckland City next up while they embark on a trio of winnable games against Wellington Phoenix (H), Southern United (A) and Hamilton Wanderers (H). She’s all up for grabs.

And then we polish things off with another goal-fest in Tasman. After getting smacked up 6-0 by Canterbury last time, Tasman were quick to take the lead against the bottom team as teenaged local Matt Tod-Smith put one away in the eleventh minute of his first Premiership start. Shout out to that guy.

This game was utterly wild. Hamilton were soon level thanks to Armin Pasagic at the penalty spot and that was only the beginning. Each team had two spot kicks, Paul Ifill slotting both for Taz while Pasagic added another for Tron Wand. Oh and then Tommy Semmy made it 3-3. Oh and then Paul Ifill completed his hatty, shooting himself up into a tie for fifth on the goal-scoring charts (with Keegan Linderboom of Waitak). Gotta love Saint Paul getting goals… although his wasn’t the winner. Alexis Varela whipped in a free-kick right at the end of things to earn a 4-4 draw. Wanderers conceded late to draw last week, they scored late to draw this week. Still without a win all season in a winless streak that goes back 21 games and 13 months but at least they didn’t lose.

Yet it’s pretty hard to find the positives for Tasman. They needed this win to regather their balance after last week’s humiliation and instead they went and gave away two more penalties. Add them to the two they conceded against Canty. Both calls here were for handballs.

Also, there were odd circumstances out of the sheds at half-time as Tasman swapped jerseys to something that clashed a little less with the Wanderers’ own sense of fashion. Whatever works.

Getting Paul Ifill back in the starting team obviously helped. He’s been playing off the bench after a run of starts early on and with his age and injury history taken into consideration you probably can’t be giving him ninety minutes too often. But they’re unbeaten in games that he’s begun: two wins and three draws with 11 goals scored when Ifill starts and, excluding the overturned result vs AK City, no wins, two draws and three defeats with four goals scored in games that he doesn’t start.

Davor Tavich also chose to leave Cory Chettleburgh on the bench here (he came on in the second half), as well as leaving Mark Johnston and Tinashe Marowa out of the squad entirely. They might have been injured or suspended though, no way of telling from here. It does seem to be a regular thing that squads are rotated against Hamilton and the Phoenix Reserves.

Whack an ad as well if you’re a good bugger. (Anyone who reads The Niche Cache is a good bugger).