A sunny afternoon at the Cake Tin right before a Wellington Phoenix A-League game with the telly cameras in full attendance. Forget about the fact that it was also terrifically windy, Wellington being Wellington and all, it’s always a fine sight to get a bit of Premiership footy in a big stadium. All three of the WeeNix home games on telly are A-League curtain-raisers, the third at Eden Park in a month’s time. Sky TV predictably saving money on resources but at least it gives some Premmy players a crack in a major setting.

Only problem for the WeeNix is that when they play the day after the top team they often get a few unused subs sliding down for game-time but there’s nobody to spare when you’re on a couple hours before. When they drew 2-2 with Eastern Suburbs before the break they had Gary Hooper and Callum McCowatt (both starting for the senior team that arvo); Sam Sutton, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, and Ben Waine (all three substitutes used later on); and Liam McGing and Oli Sail (unused subs in the A-League game). Wally Scott was also on that bench and he’s played three times for the WeeNix, while Callan Elliot has played four. Add a little more salt to the wound of bad-timing and Ahmed Othman was also missing for this game. Kinda weird that the WeeNix’s most prominent games therefore have their least representative lineups.

It’s a credit to the talent coming through at the Phoenix though that they were still able to roll out a pretty comepetitive team, with Ronan Wynne and Kurtis Mogg offering stability at the back while Luis Toomey has started most games this season and Noah Tipene-Clegg, Zac Jones, and Riley Bidios have been regulars across November and December. The WeeNix came into this one a four-game unbeaten streak and at the rate they’re going they might even have a shot at the semi-finals which last I recall they’re not actually eligible for.

Their opponents here were Southern United, a team who are definitely plotting a semi-final appearance but who’ve got some work to do to make it happen. Paul O’Reilly kept the same team that drew 0-0 with Auckland City before the break with two exceptions: Joel Stevens has gone to try his hand professionally in Sweden again so Cody Brook came into the starting team as did Chris Wingate, their Norwegian import midfielder, with Danny Ledwith out suspended for yellow card accumulation. That meant Andrew Cromb held his spot at CB in place of Erik Panzer, while Cam McKenzie played deeper in midfield and Conor O’Keeffe resorted to fullback again. McKenzie’s been an impressive attacking force so far but he looks enough like Ryan Thomas to be able to make a Thommo-esque transition into the deep lying playmaker mould, surely.

Garbhan Coughlan got himself involved straight away and the Southern striker had three decent sighters in the opening stages, all of which ended up off target. The best early chance fell at the other end however as the WeeNix strikers Heath and Bidois somehow failed to convert as one shot was saved and the next poked over the top after a lovely build up. Ben Old doesn’t have much to him physically, he’s still a wee fella, but jeez he’s got some skills and he had them all on show here, running at defenders and trying to make things happen drifting in from the right side of midfield. Zac Jones then made a quality stop with his foot to deny Abdullah Al-Kalisy after a mazy run... and then the WeeNix scored. 33rd minute. Byron Heath with the flicked header from a Ben Old corner into the swirling breeze (and boy was it swirling, advertising hoardings were flying all over the place). Somebody was bound to score eventually.

1-0 was the score at the break although Southern would have been pretty frustrated about that. Cody Brook missed another close call after the goal and if they’d taken their chances they could’ve been a couple clear. Instead they shook things up with Erik Panzer on for Chris Wingate at HT. Wingate is only just coming back from a long injury and he’d done okay in a difficult position, outnumbered by the WeeNix midfield who were knocking it around confidently. Without him, O’Keeffe moved into midfield and Cromb moved to left back with Panzer in the middle. Not as big a shakeup as the one the ref made a little while later though.

The one senior player in the WeeNix team here was brand new signing Brandon Wilson. He’d looked very decent in that midfield, as you’d expect from a guy who’s played a significant amount of A-League footy in his young career, useful with his passing but especially getting stuck in off the ball and being a physical presence. But there’s a limit to that and when he grabbed at Jordan Spain’s jersey, with advantage being played, and then chopped down Garbhan Coughlan in an attacking area he was made to stand perplexed as he was given yellows for both and thus a red. Two yellows in the same passage of play. Big controversy... although they were both yellow card offences so not sure why. Don’t commit fouls if you don’t wanna be carded. It’s a strange one because he earned the second yellow at a point where he hadn’t even been booked once and there’s a slippery slope of decision-making process involved from that perspective but let’s not get bogged down in all that. Also relevant is that Wilson was lucky not to be booked already for a few fouls.

The red changed the game yet perhaps not as much as you’d think. The WeeNix still had their opportunities to score a killer second, in fact they almost scored straight away after the red with Ben Old again involved but Byron Heath running out of room on the wrong side of the post. Eventually Southern did score an equaliser. They deserved at least that much and it was Andrew Cromb who scored it, guiding in from a Conor O’Keeffe corner driven low. Just quietly, both goals would have been avoided easily with a defender on the far post but few teams seem to bother with that precaution any more. Shout out to Andrew Cromb though. Just another of the really solid local players coming through at Southern. 18 years old, starting at CB alongside the human mountain that is Stephen Last, scoring an important goal. Chuck Cody Brook, Tim O’Farrell, and Cam McKenzie all in that same category too, while Jordan Spain’s been signed from elsewhere but is only 19 himself and given his first Premmy experience here.

Neither team was able to score a winner in the last seven minutes which left both teams annoyed at the way it ended up. Southern failing to make the most of their efforts and the WeeNix losing a late lead. Having said that, it does mean five games unbeaten in a row for the WeeNix which is a new record for them in the Premiership, just as their A-League side has tied their own undefeated streak. Neither Phoenix side has lost since November.

Busy times at Auckland City headquarters over the holidays. They’ve added a couple massive names to their crew with all-time leading goal scorer Emiliano Tade rejoining having left a promising professional career in South Africa for personal reasons, wanting to be with his family in New Zealand instead. So, naturally, this was kinda expected. Tom Doyle’s also back in Navy Blue, having similarly left his club in Germany after a mutual contract release and he’s returned to the club he represented at the 2011 Club World Cup. Neither was ready for action this week with the paperwork still in the final stages (and we all know to be extra careful with ineligible players in this league) but those are a couple sexy additions right there. However there’s a heads for every tails and they’ve also lost the services of Keegan Linderboom who has signed in Thailand (although he only played a handful of minutes anyway) while David Browne has gone to Finland for a three week trial. Fingers crossed Browney gets something substantial out of that, he’s definitely good enough.

The break came at an awkward time for ACFC who fumbled their way to Christmas with consecutive 0-0 draws. Only one goal conceded in their previous six but they’d dried up suddenly at the other end against Eastern Suburbs and Southern United. To start 2020 they were away to Waitakere United, their old foes, and there were a couple changes. Clayton Lewis came into the team for David Browne, while Dylan Manickum started again with Logan Rogerson absent. Brian Kaltack came in at CB for Angel Berlanga as those dudes continue their usual rotations (this was the first time that Bilen and Kaltack had both started since Berlanga came back to fitness). And Alfie Rogers started his first game of the campaign while Conor Tracey held his spot in goal. Still a formidable team however you slice it.

On the other side Waitakere might have started things off with a couple wins but they’d not taken three points from any of their next five. They were seconds away from beating Team Wellington last match but couldn’t quite close it out. No drastic changes here for Paul Hobson’s side. Exact same eleven as that TeeDubs game, three weeks later.

Back in the old NZFC days these were the two standard bearers of this competition. No dramas for Auckland City who remain as talented as ever but times have changed for Waitakere for sure and that disparity between the two storied clubs was pretty evident here. After a few early cracks, City took the lead after twenty minutes through Manickum who finished off a nice counter attack. He almost doubled that straight away as City looked to capitalise on their dominance... although the Waitaks did fight back as the half progressed, almost levelling but for Sam Burfoot to be flagged offside as he put one in on the rebound after Tracey had parried Dan Schnell’s effort. But then fortune turned on them once more as Alex Connor-McClean was forced off with injury before Cam Howieson headed in a second for City, those two blows coming within a couple minutes late in the half.

City then picked up where they left off as Manickum scored his second of the afternoon in the 48th minute and it pretty much carried on in that fashion, albeit with a few moments of consolation for the hosts. Dane Schnell scored his fifth of the season to make it 3-1 but goals for Myer Bevan, Clayton Lewis, and Maro Bonsu-Maro rammed home a big performance from ACFC. Turns out they’d just been saving all their goals the last couple games for this date on the calendar. Bevan’s goal being his 10th of the campaign, while Lewis and substitute MBM each bagged their first. Bonsu-Maro scored some crucial goals last season but has been used more sparingly this term with more competition for places while Lewis will be pretty stoked with his effort since David Browne’s absence clears up a spot in the starting team that he’ll be desperate to make his own.

Quick nod for Rayhan Carlson-Du Toit though, he came off the bench to score a second for the Waitaks and his first National League goal in his debut appearance. That made it 5-2 briefly before Bonsu-Maro’s goal with less than ten minutes on the clock so merely academic at that point but still a lovely moment. And speaking of academics it saved this from being Waitakere’s biggest ever defeat against their cross-town rivals so that’s worth something too.

Waitakere have had a couple of these results - losing 5-2 to Southern and 4-2 to Hawke’s Bay United. They’re a young team that’s gonna suffer for inexperience sometimes and that’s all part of the rollercoaster ride but without a win since their second game of the season they do need to be careful this doesn’t fall off a cliff like last season did. This is a better more organised squad but still, this league is so close this year. They’ll be chuffed to see the repeat fixtures begin next week since the Wellington Phoenix and Tasman United, their next two games, are the two team they beat at the start of it all. As for Auckland City this had to be coming. They were always going to find their scoring boots and when they did they did so with a flurry. Jose Figueira was a little annoyed at a couple sloppy goals conceded but this is still by far the best defence in the league. Still undefeated too.

Rightio, moving on to Sunday’s games now and we might as well start with the only team that seems capable of consistent enough results to keep pace with Auckland City and of course that’d be Team Wellington. The TeeDubs hosted Hawke’s Bay United, the surprise package of the first half of the season, and they did so with a very tasty looking team as Sam Mason-Smith and Hamish Watson started alongside each other for the first time. A proper old battering ram combo that one. They also welcomed back Taylor Schrijvers to that defence who was a stalwart of the last couple seasons and exactly the kind of reinforcement they needed back there after zero clean sheets through the first eight games. Ollie Whyte returned to the starting team after giving Marko Stamenic a couple games in his position. Oh hey and Keegan Smith made his first appearance in goal for the TeeDubs too.

And, well, this one didn’t take long before it lost it’s intrigue. Five minutes in and Hamish Watson had already scored twice, the first a nice volley after a Rory McKeown corner kick and the second slipping it past the keeper after a beauty of an assist from Ollie Bassett. That’d be the same Ollie Bassett who struck the crossbar in the 11th minute – this one nearly got humiliating for HBU.

Hawke’s Bay’s early form was built upon consistent selections and well drilled formational work. But here they were missing a couple folks who’d been everpresent in the Greatholder/Robertson starting XIs. Kaeden Atkins and Dylan Sacramento, the former an 18 year old defender having a breakout year and the latter a star import playmaker. Not sure about Sacramento but Atkins was still away on a family holiday. Karan Mandair has gone over to the USA for university too so he won’t be back this season. Liam Schofield got another start while Gavin Hoy also returned to the team from those that lost to Hamilton Wanderers before the break. The evergreen Adam Cowan made his second start too while Danny Wilson came out of nowhere to start in place of Atkins – the veterans answering the calls.

But yeah obviously it didn’t quite work. Take out a key playmaker and shuffle with the defence and it’s gonna be tough to compete against a top team. Squad depth is a tricky thing to find for most Premiership clubs as the season progresses and players come in and out and it doesn’t help when a former icon of the club in Sam Mason-Smith is making it 3-0 after 36 minutes with a header (another assist for Bassett). Quite a few of these TeeDubs have featured for HBU over the years actually... including Hamish Watson and the scorer of a late fourth goal Nati Hailemariam. All four goal-scorers were ex-players, ouch (also chuck in Mario Barcia and Andy Bevin, although the latter wasn’t playing here).

Add that all up and you’ve got a 4-0 win for Team Wellington who put some distance between themselves and third-place (at the start of the day) HBU on the ladder. Keegan Smith didn’t have a lot to do (although Adam Cowan did hit the crossbar in the second half) but that’s one game and one clean sheet for him. Another former Phoenix youngster had a spell off the bench here too, Max Batchelor with his first appearance for the TeeDubs.

HBU don’t actually lose much ground thanks to results elsewhere but it is telling of a league table that’s beginning to look like a two horse race that they’re tied for third place and both those teams have a negative goal difference. For the twin-gaffers, it’s all about getting as close to a full-strength team out there as possible. Next week is Auckland City. Hard to see them winning that one but they went six unbeaten following an opening week loss to ACFC so they know what they’re capable of and a first semi-final appearance since the 2016-17 season is very much in the realms of future reality.

At this point we might have to start considering the possibility that Kale Herbert is a genius. It didn’t look so flash for his Hamilton Wanderers with ten minutes to go down in Christchurch as they trailed Canterbury United 1-0 thanks to a George King goal in the 68th minute, tapping home after substitute Jake Richards had done a lovely job in setting him up... but there’s a lot can be achieved in ten minutes, don’t even worry about it.

Both teams had ended 2019 with wins, Canterbury beating Tasman 2-0 and the Tron Wands taking care of Hawke’s Bay with a 2-1 victory, Jake Butler scoring very late in that one to steal the points. As such not a whole lot to change for the hosts with Canadian striker Calum Ferguson coming back into the starting team at the expense of Juan Chang-Urrea being the only alteration the Cantabs made after three weeks off to think about it, while Hamilton Wands were happy to keep Brock Messenger and Tino Contratti in that defensive line again after the success of that combo last time though they did make two changes: Jordan Lamb dropped to the bench and Brad Whitworth missed his first start of the season with Joe Nottage and import JC Mack coming into the mix. The trusted trio of Butler/Semmy/Tieku were all there – those three had scored 10 of their 12 goals prior to this game.

As you’d anticipate, the Dragons started off the better team and went close with a Ferguson header while Luke Tongue was doing a few things himself. Dan Schwarz also had a shot blocked and it was all starting to get a little chippy...

But the Tron Wands soon found their footing and were threatening plenty themselves through Tommy Semmy and Derek Tieku. Somewhat of a surprise from such an end to end contest that it was still goalless at the break even if the heat wouldn’t have helped. Neither of these teams have been fantastic defensively this season so maybe it was to be expected. The Tron Wands definitely have a few attacking game-breakers and while the Dragons’ side doesn’t look that way to first impressions, other than Aaron Clapham, they’ve been getting quality out of George King all season, they’ve got a solid centre forward in Ferguson, and with young fellas like Haris Zeb and Jake Richards bringing a bit of spark it certainly changes the complexion.

However after they scored the Cantabs were very quickly put under some serious pressure. Tommy Semmy went close while Butler had a crack from a free kick which hit the wall and just as it was starting to feel like they were too wasteful, Derek Tieku was eventually adjudged to have gotten the crucial touch on a ball into the box and we were all level with seven minutes plus change remaining. Which was easily enough time for Tommy Semmy to make his mark. Two goals in five minutes for him, three goals in six minutes for the Tron Wands, and the Hamilton Late Show ensured three more points and all of a sudden this team, which was rock bottom after week seven is all the way up to third a mere two weeks later. Their goal difference is terrible thanks to a few early hidings but they keep winning like they have the last three games in a row and it won’t matter. Keep in mind they’ve played a game fewer too. Three wins out of three completed games since Kale Herbert took over... this result also keeps an even more incredible streak which is this...

HW with Brock Messenger: 4 W | 0 D | 0 L | 11 GF | 4 GA | +7 GD | 12 PTS

HW w/o Brock Messenger: 0 W | 0 D | 4 L | 3 GF | 18 GA | -15 GD | 0 PTS

He missed four of their first five games but the one that he played was a shock 3-0 win over Eastern Suburbs. The other four they conceded at least four goals in each and lost handily. It’s about as dramatic a difference as you could possibly ever see. Also excellent to see a Premmy Files favourite in Tommy Semmy getting amongst it, he doubled his season goal tally with this result. Tieku already has six and has scored in all of HW’s wins – make that 13/15 for that Butler/Semmy/Tieku combo. Not much fun for the Cantabs of course but late goals giveth and late goals taketh away. The Dragons conceded an 83rd minute equaliser against Waitakere a while back but they’ve also scored an 84th min winner against Southern, a 75th minute equaliser against HBU, and an injury time equaliser against the WeeNix. And the reason late goals are often a factor with them is that they’re always involved in close games.

That table’s stupid by the way because the tiebreaker is actually head to head results, as we saw last year in Team Wellington finishing behind Canterbury United despite a far superior goal difference. So Hamilton Wanderers should be third on the ladder having beaten Hawke’s Bay. But of course NZF would get their own (silly) rules wrong, aye? I also found it hilarious that they announced their Player & Team of the Week for Week 8 midway through last week when those games were played before Christmas.

That Wanderers win was probably on the shallow scale of upsets, but Tasman United beating Eastern Suburbs was on the deep scale. Sure, it ain’t the same Suburbs team that won the title last season but they’re still well in the hunt for the semis and would have backed themselves to win this one comfortably even with a few interesting changes from Tony Readings. At the back it was all pretty solid other than Michael Built playing in place of Dylan De Jong (Kelvin Kalua swapping sides), but in the midfield and up front there was a clear purpose to integrate some of their best emerging local fellas. For Campbell Strong this was his fourth straight start so no shock there however Leon van den Hoven got his first start of the season, having returned to his old club after a year in the Netherlands. Kinglsey Sinclair also popped back up in the front line and Ryan Verney kept him company with Martin Bueno leading the line. That’s a fair few NZ youth internationals to chuck in... although it did mean no Adam Thomas or Mohammed Awad who have arguably been their two best players this season.

Tasman United had to do a fair bit of defending to begin this match as Suburbs knocked it around in possession playing peek-a-boo for any little gaps in the defence. But Tasman’s defence has been pretty great whenever they’ve been able to get Fox Slotemaker and Cory Brown in the same team, as was the case here. Midfield hard man Cory Vickers was also back in the team having served his red card suspension. He came in for Jama Boss in the only change with Billy Scott sliding further forward.

That patient Suburbs approach was the pattern of the opening half with limited chances for both teams. Yet it all broke open in the second spell when Jean-Philippe Saiko put one away early in the second half. The New Caledonian striker came into this team with big expectations and a frightening goal scoring record but took some time to settle as Tasman struggled to create basically anything for him those first few weeks. This was his second goal in eight games and first from open play. If Saiko gets going then not only does that completely change the outlook for Tasman’s back nine holes of this season but we’ll also get some cringey Saiko/Psycho puns too.

Down a goal away from home in a game they expected to win, Suburbs had to open things up more and that had the inverse effect of allowing Tasman the room to attack on the break though Jesse Randall, who is steadily becoming a real starring influence for this team. The kiwi teenager has electric pace and he’s learning to use his skill on the ball in dangerous ways. Right at the end, as Tasman battled hard to preserve their slim lead, Randall went up the other end and set up sub Lachie Brooks for the clincher. Brooks with his first National League goal and Randall with another highlight moment that puts him in prime position to sign for the Wellington Phoenix next season just like the last two standout wing prospects for Tasman did: Callan Elliot and Ahmed Othman.

So that’s now both finalists from last season that Tasman have beaten this season. Chuck in the overturned win against Southern – which has been upheld by NZF despite an appeal – and this latest win launches them from last on the ladder to fifth. There’s four points between third and last. We’re basically halfway through the season now (HW vs WU still to be replayed) and each week shakes everything up like lotto balls in the machine, it’s that close. The Wellington Phoenix have gone five games undefeated and are at the bottom looking up. Utter madness.

Difficult times for the defending champs too. We can’t judge them by last season’s standards however that’s now six games without a win and draws don’t do a lot for you when the table’s this tight. It’s an awkward time for teams right now as we’re not far from when some of the better players might jump on a plane to go play NPL in Australia and there are a couple candidates in this team that, based on what happened here, Suburbs can’t really afford to lose if they wanna get back to the semis – most teams have at least one or two players in that category, to be fair... although there’s chat that Adam Thurston (English midfielder, ex-Cantabs and HBU) is on his way. Remember there’s OFC Champions League on the horizon for Suburbs too so definitely can’t afford to dwell on this one too much. Onwards and upwards. What a hell of a week of games to get us back underway.

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