Auckland's woodwork denied Otago United yesterday as the home side beat Otago 2-nil in a New Zealand Football Championship match at Kiwitea Street.
Barry Gardiner was within a 12cm width of scoring when his free kick thundered against Auckland's crossbar. Then it was Auckland's big keeper, Ross Nicholson, making a top reaction save when Colin Falvey delivered a cross that Tom Jackson powerfully headed at goal.
The Otago bench was also airborne when Dave Dugdale sliced through in the second half and appeared to have scored, but the linesman's offside flag cut short celebrations.
"It was a day of 'almosts'," Otago coach Terry Phelan said. He commended his side's resilience to come back after conceding a ninth-min goal, when defender Matt Friel pushed forward to score from a right wing corner and take some pressure off coach Colin Tuaa's side.
Against a champion team that put seven goals past Otago without reply in three matches last season, Phelan's team adopted a positive attacking pattern that created many good goal-scoring chances.
Aaron Burgess combined well with Blair Scoullar and new signing Dave Dugdale. Invercargill-born Burgess managed a few shots at goal, before being hacked by Ricki Van Steeden in an incident that had Van Steeden and Scoullar booked afterwards.
In midfield, Andy Coburn, and Robbie Deeley put in the miles and Gardiner jinked forward in typical deceiving style.
The cut and thrust continued as Auckland showed its pedigree to play controlled football against an Otago side that absorbed pressure and always looked capable of counter-attacking with a goal.
But Otago's nemesis, Keryn Jordan, struck again as he evaded defenders to score from a Ki-Hyung Lee pass, and with 27min to go, it was all uphill for Phelan's side at 2-nil down.
Yet with the wind on their backs, Otago players kept up the pace as Burgess was substituted by Jackson and later Sean Brand replaced Scoullar, and Tom Connor came on for Deeley.
Considering it was United's first competitive match of the season, the Otago coaching staff and players now have a realistic yardstick to measure themselves by.
"We know what we have to do now," Phelan said.
"On a positive note we played attacking football and made some very good chances.
"A couple of defensive lapses cost us dearly, possibly lack of concentration, but that will come as we adjust to the pace of the NZFC which is light years quicker than regional winter football," he said.
"It's time to roll our sleeves up. We have Canterbury in our first home game next Sunday at Sunnyvale. They [Canterbury] lost to Manawatu so we will both be scrapping for our first points.
"What we need is a big, noisy Otago crowd to get behind our lads, to spur them on."
