Div 1 : Otaki Purutaitama 2-0 Manakau Hui Mai

Paddy Sannazzaro in action

Technically I think that this was meant to be a home game for us - but as Capital Football decided in midweek to change the venue Otaki's home ground of Haruatai - that was debatable.

The first half was a fairly even affair, with Otaki starting fast, but midway through the half Manakau had a dominant spell and forced 4-5 corners and Paul Kulhavy had a goal bound header kicked off the line. Late in the first half it took the defensive magic of Chris Temperton and Paddy Sannazzaro to combine with a double block and save in order to keep Otaki out and keep the match scoreless at the break.

Otaki got the breakthrough 10 minutes into the second half when defensive indecision saw Manakau hesitate in the six-yard box instead of hoofing it clear, and Otaki pounced to smash the ball home. Otaki upped the tempo for the next 10 minutes and it took some very good defensive work from Kimbal McHugo and Ben Harvey and some fine saves from goalkeeper Paddy to keep them out.

With about 20 minutes left Mike Urlich and Jackson Murray combined well to set up a chance for Brixton Cowie but his shot was well saved by the Otaki keeper. Murray and Urlich also had pot-shots from around the edge of the penalty area, but were finding the Otaki defence a hard group to crack.

Otaki grabbed their second goal with 10 minutes remaining, with an intricate midfield move resulting in a precision pass into the penalty area and the striker pounded in a flash to steer the ball into the goal.

A fair result overall, with Otaki showing the better footballing moves, but on another day Manakau could easily have claimed a point that their dogged display warranted.

MAN OF THE MATCH POINTS : 
3 - Paddy Sannazzaro
2 - Paul Kulhavy
1 - Chris Temperton