The Dunedin City Royals remained seventh in the Southern League after a 3-1 loss to Christchurch United at Tahuna Park on Saturday.
The Royals were strengthened by the return of Oban Hawkins and Nico Zambrano, while United — who find themselves in the unusual spot of third after winning the title by seven points last season — had former Royals player Kaleb de Groot-Green and former Otago United star and All White Joel Stevens on the field.
United opened the scoring in the 18th minute when a Royals heavy touch fell to former Dunedin Technical player Jackson Cole. He found Sam Peterson to square the ball across to Joel Stevens, who side-footed home.
The visitors then sat back and found their possession-based game, while the Royals were happy to build attacks by pouncing on errors through their press.
This led to the Royals having the better chances going into halftime. Nicolas Zambrano had a goal disallowed due to a very close offside call, and Royals man of the match Will Turner had his goal-bound shot from the edge of the box tipped over the bar by United keeper Steven Van Dijk.
The second half started with the Royals pressing hard for an equaliser, and United looking to break forward on the counter.
United doubled their lead, somewhat against the run of play, when de Groot-Green was in the right place at the right time to smash home from close range after the Royals failed to clear after an attacking free kick.
The Royals continued to look for a way back into the game but had to wait until injury time, substitute Cato Williams on the edge of the box drilling the ball into the bottom corner of the goal following a Dom Hawkins corner.
With a few minutes of injury time remaining, the Royals were looking for an equaliser but they were caught napping from the restart as United passed down the right, allowing Thomas Chao to tap the resultant cross home.
In the South Island Women’s League, University and Roslyn drew 1-1 on Saturday with both goals coming in the first half and from corners.
Roslyn opened the scoring after 10 minutes through Zara Pratley, and University equalised in first-half stoppage time when Amelie East-Giles scored an own goal.
Both teams had breakaway attacks throughout the game but were not able to capitalise. The students spurned two one-on-ones in the first half, and with 15 minutes to go, University’s Harriet Park turned her defender and shot from outside the box, but her shot skimmed off the upright.
Yesterday, the Royals women continued their unbeaten run in the championship with a 2-1 win over Nelson Suburbs.
— Neville Watson
