Delta Tapware Metro scored a much-needed 3-1 win at Albie Turner Field in the Ansett National Club Championship on June 23, sending near-neighbours Placemakers Cook Street Central United to their seventh straight defeat and passing their rivals on the league table for the first time this season in doing so.
In a typical ebullient Central Auckland derby, Metro, back under the stewardship of Sean Hird after Kevin Hagan resigned from the post on Monday, played with a passion and desire all too rarely seen this season - as match referee Tony Cawte so aptly put it afterwards, “It was the Metro of old out there tonight”.
Central, contrastingly, played like a team which doesn’t know where its next win is coming from. While they created their fair share of opportunities, their inability to finish off those chances ultimately proved costly, but it wasn’t this facet of the game which determined the final outcome.
Instead, it was something far more straight-forward - Metro’s hunger for victory was far greater than that of their opponents. This was evident in the fifty-fifty challenges - the home team won all the key ones, including the one on the edge of the penalty area which presented Justin Worsley with the first chance of the match in the seventh minute.
Playing as a targetman - Hird reshuffled the pack, with this his key change, thus providing Graham Green and Danny McHenery with some aerial support up front - the former Central striker slipped the ball past the advancing Peter Evans, but past the far post as well.
Two minutes later, Mark Elrick had the ball in the net at the other end of  the park, but saw his strike ruled out for offside. Five minutes later, Elrick was on the charge once more, referee Cawte overruling the offside call of his assistant, Sam Narayan. Fortune favoured Metro on this occasion, however, as the All White fired wide of the target.
The pendulum swung very much Metro’s way a minute later, with Matt Fowler letting his frustrations get the better of him after being called for a foul on Aaron Beckham.
It’s not a wise move to call the referee a naughty name at the best of  times, and certainly not in the first game following a strong edict handed down to match officials from the powers that be, encouraging them to clamp down on foul and abusive language.
Outcome - the first early shower of the night ... but one is left to wonder why, with twelve rounds of the competition having been played, the issue of industrial language is suddenly being placed under the spotlight. Shouldn’t this have been the case from day one?
As Central looked to regroup, Metro stormed forward with a splendid move down the park, featuring midfield lynchpin Hird, defensive rock Stuart Mair, Worsley, James Pritchett - he ran Central ragged down the right - and Green, whose woeful shot did not do justice to his team-mates’ creativity.
After Duncan Martin had bravely saved at the feet of Bruce Hill, as he chased after a Campbell Banks’ through ball, Metro took the lead in the 27th minute.
It was a splendid twenty-five yard curler from Green which broke the deadlock, but the vivid vocabulary he uttered in celebration left Mr Cawte with no option - if he was going to be consistent, he had to send the goalscorer off. And he did so, before the game restarted.
With parity restored in terms of playing numbers, Central fancied their chances once more. A breathtaking run by Banks came to an unscheduled halt courtesy Sakdy Phommahaxay’s unyielding challenge in the penalty area on the half hour, which sparked a Metro raid culminating in McHenery blazing over on the angle.
Elrick led the Central charge once more seconds later, wriggling his way to the byline only for Martin to pounce on his low cross. Eight minutes later, a relentless passage of play in and around Metro’s penalty area saw spot-kick claims waved away, Mair play through the pain barrier despite copping a hefty whack in a scramble, and Banks finally get in a decisive shot on goal which Martin was able to parry to safety.
All this and Gareth Rowe’s heading an Elrick corner over the crossbar right on half-time saw the teams head to the changing rooms with the prospect of a riveting second spell in store.
The four hundred-odd patrons - easily Metro’s best crowd of the season - weren’t to be disappointed, the half being fired into life - literally - by Elrick six minutes in. Despite being under pressure twenty-five yards out from goal, he unleashed a screamer which Martin could but stand and watch as it sizzled into the top left-hand corner of his net to level the scores.
Five minutes later, only the goalkeeper’s athleticism prevented the striker from repeating the dose with a free-kick from similar range. Martin regathered the ball, and launched a Metro counter-attack which culminated in Aaron Beckham curling over a teasing cross-shot which Evans dropped over the line.
The linesman’s flag saved the goalkeeper, however, the goal ruled out because the ball had curled out of play, then back in. Nothing quite like a bit of controversy in a local derby, is there?
For the vast majority of the next fifteen minutes, Metro were under the cosh, relying on scrambling defensive efforts to thwart Central’s attempts to score. Elrick, Banks, Hill and Brad Scott all went close in this spell, the third-mentioned being denied by Phommahaxay’s timely clearance, after the midfielder had beaten Martin in an aerial duel.
Yet at the end of this spell of seeming one-way traffic, Metro had regained the lead. As Central pressed forward, the home side struck on the counter-attack, with Pritchett enjoying the run of the right flank on every occasion.
Through him emanated the 63rd minute strike which saw the scoreboard change once more, McHenery scampering through Central’s spreadeagled defence to coolly pick his spot beyond Evans - 2-1.
Beckham and Pritchett both fired narrowly past the post before Metro clinched the match thirteen minutes from time. It was a delightful goal by Beckham - his more illustrious namesake will have to go some to beat it! - which made it 3-1, a curling cross-shot which arced over Evans and dropped neatly under the angle into the far side-netting, from where it bounced into the bottom near corner of the net.
Rattled, Central almost conceded a fourth goal, one which Pritchett’s performance richly deserved, but which he didn’t get, a result of blazing over on the angle. This sparked Central into life once more, and they spent much of the remainder of the match attempting to reduce the deficit.
The best-conceived chance came in the 81st minute, Elrick slipping Banks through after Phommahaxay had slipped over. The striker’s shot was parried by Martin, who recovered to save the rebound at Vuksich‘s feet.
Their closest opening came two minutes later, Paul Field clearing off the line from Banks, who, off-balance, fired the rebound over the top. Close to time, substitute Daniel Koprivcic scampered away down the left - Noah Hickey providing him the ball - and careered past three defenders, only for Pritchett to gain due reward for tracking back by pinching the ball off him.
That was that for Central, who now slip to ninth place on the table, one behind Metro, for whom there were many heroes on a night when bravura was called for.

Details:

Metro:  Martin; Field (booked, 90), Phommahaxay, Mair (Curteis, 77); Pritchett, Hird (booked, 84), Beckham (booked, 73), Root; Green (sent-off, 27), Worsley (Foster, 89), McHenery

Central: Evans; Scott, Rowe, Uhlmann; Hickey, Hill, Vuksich (booked, 20), Ridenton (Major, 86), Fowler (sent-off, 15); Elrick, Banks (Koprivcic, 86)

Referee: Tony Cawte

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