Ansett National Club Championship strugglers Delta Tapware Metro were made to work extremely hard for a place in the last eight of the Chatham Cup by Bluebird Premier League leaders Tauranga City United on July 1, the higher-ranked club eventually advancing to the quarter-finals on the back of a 4-2 victory at Albie Turner Field.
Metro enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, Aaron Beckham firing over the top of an open goal in the eighth minute, after a teasing Sean Hird cross for Rab McNeil lured Richard Pedley out of his goal.
Tauranga weren’t slow to flex their muscles, however, and after both Tony Lochhead and Tony Valentine had fired over the top from outside the penalty area, their first venture into it brought a tidy reward in the fifteenth minute.
McNeil‘s error was seized upon by Shane Boyle, who sent Kevin Manville scampering away down the right. His low cross was met by the horizontal figure of Justin Creighton some three yards inside the penalty area, and his diving header bulleted past Grant “Fingers” Whitford to open the scoring.
This was akin to a red flag to a bull, for Metro came storming back in search of an equaliser within minutes. A James Pritchett corner was partially cleared, and pressure from Sakdy Phommahaxay forced the ball loose to Beckham, whose cracking volley was superbly tipped to safety by Pedley. The resulting corner saw Danny McHenery send a twenty-yarder sizzling narrowly over the crossbar.
Tauranga weathered this storm, and caught Metro on the counter-attack in the 25th minute, Dion Bartosh breaching the offside trap. Creighton, the recipient of his pass, was thwarted at the death by Paul Field, who collided with the post in clearing the danger.
After a dipping twenty-five yard volley from Valentine had hit the top of the crossbar, Bartosh missed a golden opportunity to put the tie all but beyond Metro’s reach on the half-hour. Manville sent Creighton through the home team’s square defence, and he drew Whitford out of goal before slipping the ball across to Bartosh. With the goal at his mercy, he somehow rolled his shot wide of the target - an unbelievable miss in the circumstances, and one which was to prove costly.
For with their very next attack, the home side restored parity. And how! Phommahaxay hit a thirty-yard screamer as sweet as a nut, and with venom aplenty, the ball soaring beyond the spellbound Pedley into the goalkeeper’s top right-hand corner - snorter!
At 1-1, it was game on once more, and Metro had their tails up. After surviving a scare when the out-of-position Whitford managed to get his fingertips to a Manville corner and tip it to safety, Beckham tested the strength of Pedley’s midriff with a vicious volley just on half-time, after Pritchett had broken down the right.
Tauranga failed to adequately following this chance, for Pritchett wove his wizardry down the right once again seconds later, this time threading the ball across to the far post ... right into McNeil’s path. The striker gleefully stroked home from close range to give Metro a 2-1 advantage at the break.
The visitors came out all guns blazing in the second spell, and proceeded to pound away at Metro’s goal for a solid twenty minutes before finally getting the reward their incessant pressure deserved.
Creighton made the first break, in the fiftieth minute, roaring off down the left and getting to the byline before playing the ball back to Bartosh. He spread play wide to Manville, who played the ball in to Boyle. Whitford tipped his shot against the upright, and Bartosh, off-balance, fired the rebound over the crossbar.
After Field had sent a looping header narrowly over the crossbar at the other end of the ground, Tauranga laid siege to Metro’s goal, Creighton central to many of their forays.
But he met his match in Whitford. Summoned to first team duty from Over-30s level for the second season in a row to take the place of the injured Grant Schofield, the veteran kept Metro in the tie with a superb double-save to deny the visitors’ attacking spearhead in the 54th minute, then watched with relief as Bartosh squandered the rebound.
Creighton went round the ‘keeper three minutes later, only to hit the sidenetting. Seconds later, he was in again, this time setting up Bartosh, who fired wide on the stretch.
It seemed that Tauranga were fated not to score after Manville’s angled twenty-yard drive sizzled narrowly past the far post with Whitford diving in vain to his right, but it was from a Manville corner in the 65th minute that the visitors finally got back on level terms, 1999 Bluebird Premier League Golden Boot winner Brett Derry powering home a header.
With Metro’s resistance seemingly broken at last, Tauranga eased off the throttle briefly, their intention being to regroup prior to mounting another concerted attack in an effort to realise their cup upset ambitions.
They never got the chance to do so, however, as Metro’s central midfield combination of Hird and Nigel Curteis combined to take the game by the scruff of the neck and put the tie beyond Tauranga’s reach within minutes.
The warning signs were in evidence for the visitors in the 69th minute, as Hird and McNeil engineered a superb double one-two to carve open Tauranga’s defence on the right, the latter’s clever curling effort being well saved low to his left by Pedley.
The goalkeeper wasn’t so adept three minutes later, as Beckham, prompted by Hird, delivered a teasing cross to the near post which McNeil looked to flick on. Pedley came to clear the danger, and succeeded only in punching the ball down off McNeil’s head. Who should be on hand but Curteis, who, with the goal at his mercy, couldn’t miss, and didn’t - Metro, 3-2, with eighteen minutes left.
The game was up for Tauranga six minutes later, Andrew Dixon sending Pritchett tumbling in the penalty area, as he latched onto a McNeil pass and tore into the box on the right. Hird made no mistake from the spot, and Metro had a two-goal cushion.
With all to play for, Tauranga threw caution to the wind, and pushed Derry into attack. Before doing so, however, he had to fulfil his defensive duties, clearing a Pritchett free-kick off the line after the busy McHenery had been brought to earth on the edge of the  area.
Another free-kick from the New Zealand Under-17 international was stopped by Pedley before the end, while Derry found Whitford in unbeatable form on two occasions, the second of which was a splendid swerving free-kick which the goalkeeper did well to even see.
But 4-2 it remained, Metro securing their place in the quarter-finals draw at the expense of a Tauranga combination which gave them a thorough test, and which could well have advanced themselves had they taken their chances.

Metro:  Whitford; Field (List, 58), Mair (Imre, 71), Phommahaxay, Beckham (Mitchell, 85); Pritchett, Hird, Curteis, Foster; McNeil, McHenery

Referee:  Derek Rugg

Tauranga: Pedley; Probert, Derry, Dixon; Manville, Payne (Raines, 85), Valentine (booked, 73) (Langton

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