Even playing most of the game with 10 men didn’t stop Tawa from coming away with a comfortable 5–2 win over Greyfriars Motel Greytown in a first-round Chatham Cup match at Redwood Park, Tawa.
The home side took the early lead after eight minutes but were reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Cameron Rose was sent off for deliberately catching the ball outside the penalty box.
Despite being a player down, Tawa doubled their lead four minutes later. Harvey Parker gave Greytown some hope with a well-taken goal after 51 minutes, but two goals within two minutes midway through the second spell extended Tawa’s lead to 4–1.
A first Chatham Cup goal to 16-year-old Tobias Wiegman narrowed the gap before Tawa completed the scoring in the 90th minute.
Greytown went into the game with several players carrying injuries, and coach Phil Keinzley was thrilled with how his Capital Two side stood up against a Tawa side, one of four sharing the lead in Capital Premier, two divisions higher than Greytown.
“It’s always nice to think you can do the job, but the reality is you can’t play a team 20 places above you,” Keinzley said.
“We were competitive but had no energy, and too many players couldn’t do their job. The jump in the ability wasn’t too much of a problem; they just had a team of fit players, and we didn’t, and it came back to haunt us.
“They’re playing at that speed all the time, so they’re quite relaxed about it, but they didn’t beat us with constructive goals; they just beat us by long balls and our mistakes.”
Greytown, who lead division two, will return to their home turf on Saturday for a top-of-the-table clash with second-placed Miramar Rangers Reserves.
