Mangere United came from behind to down injury-hit Metro 4-1 at Centre Park on June 13, and advance to the last sixteen in the Bluebird Chatham Cup for the second time in three seasons.
The visitors have been hit with a massive injury crisis in recent weeks, and had to draft a couple of players in from their Under-19 squad simply to ensure they could put fourteen names on the team card.
So you can imagine what the sight of Jason Beeston departing in an ambulance just before half-time with what was initially feared to be a prolapsed disc in his back, but was later confirmed as muscle damage, meant to the Metro cause - Lady Luck is as far away from the Mt. Albert club’s corner at present as both ball-boys and a stretcher were from the spacious surroundings of Centre Park in this match!!
The two teams had clashed just six days prior in league action, and Mangere had prevailed 3-0 on that occasion, but it was Metro who began the stronger here, with two Vladimir Yugov efforts being saved by Simon Bilton in the first seven minutes.
A fortuitous ricochet off Arafat Bhamji fell kindly for Blagoja Spirovski in the tenth minute, but the striker was thwarted by the advancing Craig Wilkins, Metro’s ‘keeper prevailing in the one-on-one situation, United’s first attack of the match.
Before they could muster another, Metro took the lead. Peter Wild delivered a lovely corner to the near post, where Bilton was on hand to punch the ball off the head of Bradley Newall. But he only succeeded in clearing the ball to Richard Beeston, whose initial header was tipped onto the bar by the fast-reacting goalkeeper. But Bilton stood no chance with the rebound, as Metro’s captain headed the ball into the roof of the net to open the scoring.
The visitors’ lead was short-lived - three minutes, to be precise. That was all the time it took for Miro Major to prise open Metro’s defence with a defence-splitting pass for the well-performed Krishneil Singh to exploit.
Wilkins charged out of goal towards the winger like some crazed kamikaze pilot, and Singh wasted little time in whipping the ball to the far post, where Leaveil Titus was on hand to turn the ball home and level the scores.
The strong running of Titus and Daniel Koprivcic eked out Mangere’s next opportunity, half-way through the half. The former played the latter in down the right, and after Koprivcic had lured Wilkins out of goal, he delivered a measured low cross which Titus looked odds-on to turn home. But Ben Dundas won the race, and cleared the ball over his own crossbar to avert the danger.
Bilton ensured parity was maintained in the 25th minute, after Metro produced the best move of the match thus far. Arek Kubicki played the ball forward to Newall, whose first time pass invited Wild to surge downfield. The striker carried on his own run, and received a return pass from his midfield colleague inside United’s penalty area.
But Newall failed to lift the ball over the closing figure of Bilton, who was beaten all ends up seven minutes later by Wild’s twenty-five yard free-kick, only for the crossbar to intervene - on another day, and with luck on their side, Metro would have been in front again.
Instead, they remained level, but not for too much longer. Major fired a twenty-yard effort over the bar, and Spirovski over-elaborated in the penalty area when scoring appeared the easier option - an air-shot was the culmination of the Koprivcic-created opening eight minutes before the break.
Three minutes later, United took the lead. This time, it was Spirovski’s turn to provide, and Koprivcic showed his team-mate what he should have done moments beforehand, his express-paced run climaxing in his smashing the ball beyond Wilkins and in off the far post - cracking strike!
Both teams had chances to score before the interval, with Peter Hendriks thwarting Spirovski at one end, and Bilton denying Wild at the other, but after Titus and Singh had teamed up to present Koprivcic with a twenty-yard chance which he sent careering past the post at a great rate of knots eight minutes into the second half, Metro took control of the match for the next twenty-five minutes.
Such was their dominance that United barely crossed the half-way line as an attacking unit - they were pinned back well and truly as Wild urged, cajoled and inspired his team-mates in their quest to find an equaliser.
But for all their territorial domination, which frustrated many a Mangere supporter and saw any number of tense remarks directed towards those clad in the all-black kit, Metro produced very few goal scoring opportunities. Yugov headed wide; Dylan Beckham volleyed over; Bilton thwarted both Matthieu Thebault and Wild … and time ticked on with United still 2-1 to the good.
With eleven minutes remaining, the home team put the game beyond doubt by fully capitalising on a counter-attacking activity. With Marcel Visser keeping everyone onside, Titus scooted away down the left onto Rob Rhodes’ pass and charged in towards goal, Koprivcic ultimately being presented with the simplest of tap-ins to make the game safe.
Three minutes later, he rammed home a penalty to complete his hat-trick, after Richard Beeston had unceremoniously upended Spirovski for one of the more clear-cut penalties you’ll ever see, despite the striker making the most of the opportunity to practice his theatrics.
United know full well that Metro weren’t three goals worse than them, and few would have begrudged the youthful visitors a second goal - they were very good value for it, and perhaps even a third. But neither was forthcoming, their last chance seeing another Wild charge downfield culminating in Yugov’s shot being tipped round the post by Bilton.
Mangere’s memorable afternoon was crowned when player-coach Ramu Prasad brought himself on with five minutes to go, with the biggest cheer of the day coming in stoppage time, as the veteran let fly from twenty yards, only for Wilkins to save. But United had done enough to prevail once again, with Metro left to try and muster a team together for their next home game in five days’ time.

Mangere: Bilton; Sahib, Sutherland, Vula, Yakub (Rhodes, 70); Titus, Bhamji (Prasad, 85), Major, Singh (Collings, 80); Spirovski, Koprivcic

Metro: Wilkins; R. Beeston, J. Beeston (Beckham, 43), Dundas (Visser, 65), Hendriks; Campbell, Wild, Kubicki, Thebault; Yugov (Miocevic, 87), Newall

Referee: Neil Fox

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