Something rather strange happened this week. It was deep into injury time down in Nelson, where Auckland City were visiting Tasman United. So deep that there were only seconds remaining... and Jean-Philippe Saiko scored a goal. Now, that information’s not so strange on its own. New Caledonian international JP Saiko has been scoring goals all season in fact this was his sixth in his last six games. But to score with basically the last kick of the game to raise your team to victory against Auckland City? That’s the strange part. Shocking, even. ACFC were undefeated prior to this game and were on the verge of a self-proclaimed milestone. The a mildly disappointing draw that seemed about to happen would still have meant 50 regular season games undefeated for the Navy Blues... and then JP Saiko changed the entire conversation.

City were playing their final game before departing to Tahiti for their Champions League group stage objectives. They were also, crucially, without the suspended Cameron Howieson who had been a mainstay in their midfield and that meant a first start of the season for Albert Riera (alongside Mario Ilich). Conor Tracey returned in goal while Tom Doyle bounced back from the injury which had kept him out of the previous two starting teams, he was at left wingback. Jordan Vale moved to the right. And it was Angel Berlanga’s turn to sit one out at CB as the regular rotation continued. Clayton Lewis, Emiliano Tade, and Myer Bevan formed their attacking crew.

Meanwhile the home side were able to welcome captain Fox Slotemaker back from suspension, he partnered Sam Wilson at the back while Billy Scott also returned after a week out (at the expense of Josh Sansucie) and there was a first start in there for Lucas Hogg at fullback as well. Hogg is the latest of a handful of NYL grads to feature for Tasman this season so shout out to the #pathways. That meant that Jess Ibrom’s side were more or less at full strength and while they’ve had trouble when they’ve had to call upon their depth this term, when they’ve been close to maximum capacity they’ve been a very dangerous team.

So it proved when they took the lead late in the first half. Slotemaker was the fella who delivered on that one just like he delivers on the coffee orders midweek, his second goal of the season. But if ACFC switched off there (in the words of their manager) then they switched right back on again very quickly to respond three minutes later with a Tommy Doyle goal that made it 1-1 going into the half.

You can probably guess how this one looked. Tasman sat deep and compact and looked to hit on the break and from set pieces while City dominated possession and tried to break them down. It was the same up in Auckland a while back but Tasman weren’t quite able to hold out with a penalty early in the second half the turning point in a 2-1 defeat. But this time they had the man with the faded cap to keep them in it, Nick Stanton making a number of stops as City brought on Logan Rogerson, Dylan Manickum, and Andrew Blake all to try and snatch a late victory... only for Saiko to serve them their papers instead.

That’s football, for sure. Tasman are an excellently organised team and they’ve done just enough up top to pull off a few of these upset wins now so it’s absolutely no fluke. They’ve already beaten Team Wellington and Eastern Suburbs and now they get to add Auckland City to The List.

Tasman were actually the last team to beat City in a regular season game... although they went down 3-1 on the day and the win only came thanks to a default due to an admin error from ACFC. Which is why the 49 game streak was kinda silly to be fair, as it didn’t include that loss or the semi-final defeat against Team Welly last season. That’s in-house club media for ya, at least they actually have a media presence though. Some of these teams (*cough* Tasman and Hamilton *cough*) couldn’t even provide decent live updates this week. But back to the matter at hand, it’s good to see City finally lose another game. Keeps them on their toes and it gives the rest of the league some hope. This result also very seriously positions Tasman for a crack at their first ever finals match with four games remaining against the WeeNix (A), Tron Wands (A), Cantabs (H) & Eastern Subs (A).

Speaking of that semi-final scrap, two teams that are well in it are Hamilton Wanderers and Waitakere United, who were supposed to have a week off here but the rain-postponement the first time they met needed replaying which leaves us in the funky position of the Wanderers and Waitaks playing each other in consecutive weeks with their regularly scheduled clash out in West Auckland happening on the weekend. Given the closeness of the table, these two weeks could prove make or break for one or both of them. There’s only a few more rounds left after all.

The Tron Wands made one change from the team that went down to the WeeNix at Eden Park last week. Kohei Matsumoto came in for Jordan Shaw and that was that. The more stable they’ve been the better for the most part but recent times have been tough. Four games undefeated to start Kale Herbert’s reign... only one point from four games since. But Kale backed his same dudes to get the job done with a bit more of a clinical approach and sure enough they were in the lead after seven minutes as Joe Harris put one home from a corner kick. Waitakere keeper Nick Draper hurt his hand some time around then too apparently which is a big blow for a guy who might have been the form keeper of the competition thus far.

Waitakere had also won four games in a row to launch them back into the top four but that streak ended last week when they got dropped by Southern United. They welcomed Luke Searle back from suspension but lost Robert Tipelu, the first game he’s missed all season. Shuaib Khan got a start with Clark Foulds on the bench. Regan Murati came in for Jack Duncan and there was no Jake Porter either so a familiar face popped up for his first match this season in Ignacio Machuca Maturena. Phew, a couple changes there then. But one fella who is always around (for 13/14 starts anyway) is Dane Schnell and the Waitakere Utd top scorer continued his excellent form with his eighth goal to have us level going into the break.

Alex Connor-McLean then gave Waitakere the lead about a quarter of an hour into the second half and that took us past the point at which the game was called off last time. Same scoreline too. Waitakere were 2-1 up then and now. The rain was heavy enough that abandoning the game was the only real choice the referee had that day but Waitakere may well have been a bit pissed that they didn’t get awarded the points considering they were leading at the time. Or at least that they missed out on the chance to close that one out from the point of abandonment. Not saying those would have been better than replaying the game, they wouldn’t have, but this is how teams tend to think and understandably so. Well, here they were in the exact same situation and you know what happened? They lost. Which just goes to show why they didn’t get to keep anything from that first attempt at a game – a 2-1 lead means nothing in this outrageous league.

No kidding. Even as this game dragged towards a close it was still 2-1, the ninety minutes done and dusted, but Hamilton Wanderers know how to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. A 94th minute winner against Hawke’s Bay. Going from 1-0 down with ten minutes left to beating the Cantab Dragons 3-1. This is something they kinda specialise in and in the third minute of stoppage time they equalised thanks to a ripper of a goal from Xavier Pratt. But they weren’t done there, no sir/madam, they then went back down that end and after a few efforts at getting it into the mixer it was substitute George Ott who scored a dramatic 95th minute winner.

Damn, dude. That’s the Otter’s second national league goal after he grabbed a consolation against Auckland a few weeks back and he’s steadily become a really useful target man striker off the bench lately. Never more useful than here, clearly. That win doesn’t quite get them into the top four thanks to their rank goal difference but then goal difference won’t matter by the end of it, head to head will (yes, New Zealand Football have two different tiebreakers depending on if affects the top four or not and depending on whether it’s the end of season or not... why can’t things just be simple?). Similarly this doesn’t do any damage to Waitakere’s top three status but they’ve lost their game in hand and there’s now just two points between them and sixth place. Hey, what did you expect? It wouldn’t be the Premiership without some drastic changes in fortune along the way... here’s proof...

Only one other game to get to from the Premmy stuff. Canterbury United hosted Team Wellington on the turf, hoping to close the gap between themselves and, well... everybody else. They’ve lost every single game in 2020 but a lot of them have been close, it’s not all doom and gloom. They’ve scored in all of those defeats. Same back four for CU as last week and most of the same midfield, although James Pendrigh was a late scratch with Abdul Khalifa replacing him while Haris Zeb started up front with Luke Tongue and George King on either side.

Team Wellington were also missing their early season strikers and that meant Andy Bevin playing as a false nine while Jack-Henry Sinclair’s immense goal scoring this season has been rewarded with a number ten role alongside Nati Hailemariam these last two weeks. Scott Midgley has come in at right wing back in his place. Aaron Spain in defence. Alex Palezevic also started with Marko Stamenic absent. And on the bench was a real surprise... but more on that later.

Truth be told the first half of this one was a grinding watch. Chances were few and far between as the lack of cohesion up top for both sides was obvious and the midfield was where all the action was found. Which was pretty good for the Cantabs. They were battling hard with their trio there and really stopping Team Welly from building things up and unleashing their wingbacks. After last week you could easily imagine heads might drop with another free scoring team on the radar (albeit one without the services of Hamish Watson, Ollie Bassett, and Sam Mason-Smith) but that wasn’t the case so fair play for that. Canterbury were really making things awkward for the TeeDubs and they could have taken the lead had Zeb been able to get his shot from a Khalifa cutback on target after half an hour. Best opportunity of the first 45 squandered.

Team Welly also had to deal with an injury for Nati Hailemariam which required him being replaced after 37 mins with Ollie Whyte on in his place. Whyte had left the squad to go do the USA college thing but suddenly here he was on the bench. Must have only been scouting his options, dunno. He missed two games and now is back so we’ll see for how long but he wasn’t the surprise on the bench, nah that was former Auckland City forward Joao Moreira who was introduced for Palezevic after an hour and then, sure enough, it was Moreira who gave the TeeDubs the lead eight minutes later. He broke the offside trap straight down the middle and finished sharply in off the near post, one on one with Danny Knight. And, in the process, injecting 10cc of excitement into this game which was suddenly bound for a dramatic final twenty.

Beginning almost immediately after as Taylor Schrijvers looked to hoof clear a ball into the penalty area only for Luke Tongue to step in front of him and take the brunt of his clearance. Penalty for the Cantabs, bloody hell. Up stepped Aaron Clapham and he hit it pretty sweetly to his left... but Scott Basalaj made a superb save to deny him. Big lifeline for the Dragons and they couldn’t grab a hold of it. Then Rory McKeown rushed in to score on the rebound after Justin Gulley’s shot had been blocked and it was 2-0 to Team Welly with ten minutes left. Hold up though, Tom Schwarz pulled one back for the Cantabs in the 83rd minute with a header at the far post, Basalaj unable to get there, and... told ya this one had a frisky finish.

But there was to be no more. Despite a flurry of corner kicks, the Cantabs couldn’t repeat the magic and Team Welly knew how to close it all out. It wasn’t easy and the Dragons only really have their own selves to blame for not being a little sharper in the first half when they had Team Welly rattled and especially with the missed penalty... but the TeeDubs take advantage of Auckland City’s defeat and slide closer to the Navy Blues in first than they are to Waitakere in third. Meanwhile the Cantabs are five clear at the bottom with only three games left. That’s now seven defeats in a row and with that they become the first team officially out of the running for the top four... they were semi-finalists the last two seasons too. Bugger.

Ah but we’re not quite done yet. There’s still the matter of Eastern Suburbs’ Champions League stuff to get to and tell ya what with 25 minutes gone on Wednesday arvo they were in big trouble against Galaxy FC (Vanuatu) having twice been caught out with balls down the right towards some speedy attackers. Terrence Carter gave Galaxy FC an unexpected lead in the 16th minute when he beat Alec Solomons’ outstretched challenge and then volleyed past a not-ideally-positioned Danyon Drake for the opener before Carlos Dos Santo Ribiero tapped in on 21 minutes after Edisson Stephens had beaten a couple challenges down the right side of the ES defence and then somehow still gotten a ball across goal to the wide open man as Michael Built failed to shield it out of play. Builty then paid the immediate price for that, being subbed off for Tyler Lissette only a quarter of the way through the match with his team in all sorts of a shambles, trailing 2-0 with their Champions League hopes in a complicated predicament.

But Marty Bueno’s a good one for a crucial goal when you need one. Two minutes before the half he scored a morale booster from the penalty spot to have Suburbs back in the game and when Edisson Stephens was sent off for a second yellow early in the second half this thing became one way traffic. Or, mostly. If Frank Ruben’s shot hadn’t come back off the frame of the goal from a mile out then who knows what would’ve happened. Instead Suburbs threw on Kingsley Sinclair and Matty Palmer (it was an unchanged team from game one) as they pushed for a winner. It wouldn’t have been all over had they lost, though it probably would’ve meant no first place in the group. Yet just as they seemed to be running out of time, a poor touch by a Galaxy defender saw the ball fall to Bueno in the box who set it up with one touch and picked out the bottom corner on the spin with another. All class from that one and the 2-2 draw meant Suburbs had it all in their own hands still going into game three.

That third game was against Hienghene Sport (New Caledonia), the defending champs of this competition but they’d lost 4-1 to Galaxy in the opener and only managed a draw with Hekari in the second match so were basically out of it at this point. Suburbs needed to win handily to earn top spot. And you know what? They did it easy, scoring twice inside twenty minutes to lead this thing comfortably for most of the way.

Tony Readings made two changes with Kingsley Sinclair, Tyler Lissette, and Jake Mechell all getting their first starts of the OCL... which means that eight players started all three games which could have a rather heavy effect on the fitness as they return to the Premiership. Mechell should probably have put them in front first but no worries because Bueno scored a beauty of a header from a corner instead. It was then a brilliant touch from Bueno that put Reid Drake in behind the defence and his finish was sublime.

A third goal proved tough to come across with Bueno hitting the crossbar from a free kick... though eventually Bueno would get himself a second in the 72nd minute. Again there was too much room at the back from Hienghene and Bueno was able to outrun his marker and slam it into the near top corner before taking a lie down off pitch to deal with the inevitable cramping. That goal means he’s scored doubles in all three OCL matches... something he’s also done in three of his last four Premmy matches. In all comps he’s scored 13 goals in his last seven games and that’s just incredible. Adam Thurston added another one in stoppage time but with Hekari beating Galaxy 2-1 (Roy Kayara with the first goal) it didn’t matter. Suburbs finish top of the group with seven points while Galaxy survive in second with four thanks to their goal difference.

Next week it’s another split gameweek as Auckland City have their own Champions League excursion. Hawke’s Bay are back in action after two weeks off and they host Southern United. Waitakere United and Hamilton Wanderers have their rematch. Both those are on Saturday. Then Eastern Suburbs have their heavy landing back into domestic footy when they face Team Wellington in the capital on Sunday. Waitaks vs Tron Wands is the televised match.

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