20 JUL 1998 , Edition 2, Page 18.
Cup fever grips Ngaruawahia as United roll into semifinals
BATTLE OF THE BALL: Ngaruawahia United striker Gary Kingi holds off the challenge of a Bay Olympic defender. Picture by Jane Sanders
The Northern League first division club partied all weekend after beating premier league side Bay Olympic 2-1 in extra time at Centennial Park on Saturday to move into the semifinals.
Two classy Aaron Kingi strikes were enough to see off a limp challenge from the higher-ranked Auckland side in a game that only kicked into life during extra time.
Speaking from Ngaruawahia’s noisy clubrooms yesterday, coach Jeff Coulshed said they had never made the semifinals before in their 30-year history and members wanted to savour it.
“I’m pleased for the players and the club members who have stuck with it.
“The win is just reward for them all.
“Now with the break until the semifinal next month we can stay in the Cup a bit longer and enjoy it all.
“We want another home draw to get a bit of revenue for the club and to get the interest going again,” he said.
The 250-strong crowd were frustrated by the chances both teams wasted until Kingi stepped up in the 115th minute to push his side into an unlikely position of challenging for New Zealand soccer’s oldest trophy.
The Cup’s waning reputation matches the decline in the overall standard of soccer in New Zealand after the failed experiment of the national summer league which weakened top clubs and dispersed the best players.
But that should not detract from Ngaruawahia’s efforts and they now have just as much chance to win it as the other semifinalists.
Ngaruawahia have already beaten premier league side Hamilton Wanderers in this year’s Cup run and are now looking to today’s draw to see who they will face in their semifinal.
Coulshed expects there will be a good turnout at this week’s training — “a good Cup run seems the only way to get them down to train”.
He has moulded a winning side which is hard to beat on the small, muddy home pitch even though they lack the firepower up front to score goals consistently.
After a shaky start on Saturday, Ngaruawahia fully deserved the win against Bay Olympic, who had one of the slowest defences seen in years, including 40-something former All White Glen Adam.
Coulshed said: “There’s a great team spirit with these lads, they work at training and they are all battlers.
“I was always confident we were the better side and would do it in the end.”
Meanwhile, Wanderers’ were thrashed 5-1 for the second week running by a fellow premier league title contender.
They’ve fallen further off the pace after losing to Glenfield Rovers in Auckland on Saturday. Ellerslie beat them last week.