Meisha Boone scored Wairarapa United’s goal. PHOTO/FILE
FOOTBALL
Waterside-Karori 1
Tumu ITM Wairarapa United 1
CHRIS COGDALE
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Tumu ITM Wairarapa United had plenty of opportunities to win their W-League match away to Waterside-Karori, but in the end were probably fortunate to come away with a 1-1 draw.
United dominated the first half and created several goal-scoring chances only for the final pass to go astray, the shot to be off target, or the goalkeeper to save.
It was second week in a row that United squandered a chance to claim the three points after a 1-1 draw with North Wellington the previous Saturday.
Coach Paul Ifill was left frustrated for the second week in a row with the lost opportunities.
“They were better than North Welly and were tough to beat but we should’ve won the game again,” he said.
“The game should’ve been dead and buried. We had enough chances to go three or four nil up and we didn’t put them away.”
Captain Meisha Boone opened the scoring after 38 minutes for United, who looked in control until the home side equalised midway through the second half.
“We probably blew a gasket with about 20 minutes to go and we were struggling, and they could’ve actually won the game,” Ifill said.
“They had a couple of chances to win and probably 1-1 was a fair result but we are better than that.”
The result leaves United in sixth place in the eight-team league with two draws and a loss and Ifill said they’ve made it difficult to challenge for the title.
“If we want to be top two in the league, we need to go to places like that and win. We’ve put ourselves in a little bit of trouble because we’re now seven points behind Palmerston North Marist and Wellington United Diamonds.”
Ifill said there needed to be more composure in attacking situations.
“We’re going through and we’re not really taking a breath before we shoot. We’d miss the target a lot, maybe we’re a bit anxious or a bit nervous in front of goal but we can work on that.”
“We worked on the timing of our runs because we were offside so many times last week [against North Wellington] and that was way better, and I was pleased with our creativity but our finishing needs to be worked on.”
Ifill said Tui Dugan was very good in the midfield, and he was very pleased with Dani Turton and Flo MacInytre playing in the accustomed role at centre back.
United play bottom-of-the-table Seatoun at Trust House Memorial Park in the next match on Saturday.
