• Rovers produce polished rehearsal for Chatham Cup clash

Rovers produce polished rehearsal for Chatham Cup clash

Napier City Rovers footballers are ready for next Sunday's third round Chatham Cup clash against Western Suburbs in Wellington.

The Cup holders, Thirsty Whale Napier City Rovers, proved this with today's Central League 11th round 5-0 drubbing of Wainuiomata at Napier's Bluewater Stadium. As a delighted Rovers head coach and centre back Bill Robertson said afterwards:

"It was a good performance. We stamped our authority early, scored some good goals and got things right out of possession with good control."

Busy forward Kaelin Nguyen, a loan player from the Phoenix Academy, scored the first of his two goals in the sixth minute when he capitalised on some confusion among the Wainuiomata defence.

Rovers striker Cam Emerson scored in the ninth minute after a superb break from forward Zac Madsen. When Wainuiomata defender brought Madsen down in the box in the 36th minute Rovers midfielder Liam Schofield (pictured above) succeeded with a penalty to give the hosts a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Nguyen scored his second goal in the 70th minute after latching on to the rebound from an attempt by Emerson. Four minutes later Rovers forward Ben Wade scored the final goal after cohesive build up from the Blues.

The hosts climbed to sixth place on the points table. Rovers have no major injury concerns as their attention turns to Suburbs who are fourth in the Central League.

Striker Josh Stevenson, who was rested today, remains Rovers top goalscorer in Central League play this season with six. Schofield and Emerson have five.

Bottom-of-the-table Wainuiomata must be commended for their never-say-die approach. Forwards Brendan McMullen and Devon Thurston and midfielder Daniel Harford-Silas all had memorable moments for the visitors. 

Meanwhile Havelock North Wanderers beat Gisborne City 4-1 in their away Federation League match today. This was a crucial win for the top-of-the-table villagers in their quest to gain promotion to the Central League next year.

The score was 1-all after a first half which saw Wanderers have nine shots on goal, six more than Gisborne. Wanderers lifted the tempo during the final 20 minutes and Gisborne struggled to compete during this period.

Centre back Joshua Stewart and captain and midfielder Jerome Groot were the best of the Wanderers players. Groot scored two goals and Bradley Perks and Bjorn Christensen the others.