New Zealand Football Championship
Otago Utd 2-nil ...
the Drought is Over
by Rab Smith
Otago United broke an 11 match drought to beat Team Wellington 2-nil in the New Zealand Football Championship match played at Newtown park yesterday.
Coach Malcolm Fleming’s refreshing new attacking approach has paid off in his short reign as Otago now shares fourth place in the NZFC with Hawkes Bay and Canterbury equal on four points.
Fleming said,’ We were a bit at sixes and sevens for the first 10 minutes as the new guys continued to settle in, but after that we dominated for long spells.’
‘ There were some really good personal performances, backed by a solid team effort, and even locals said that we deserved the win.’
"You have got to score goals to win games. I’ve never ever played one striker up front – it doesn’t matter how good a striker you have in that role. We’ll be going to attack. Whether we play three up front, two up front with five in midfield – we’ve got to be scoring goals if we want to make the play-offs"
‘ Sure James Wagget made a couple of top saves, but we had their keeper James Bannatyne scrambling several times, and we got the all important goals that counted.’
‘ Young Morgan Day had an excellent match in central midfield despite getting a gashed head. He was outstanding and combined well with Stu Kelly,’ said Fleming.
Also singled out for praise were the Otago centrebacks, Tim Horner and Chris Jenkinson who have formed a reliable partnership in defence.
New striker Nathan Knox went well for an hour, 
Dave Dugdale harried and grafted for the whole game, and showed pace and anticipation to break through and entice keeper Bannatyne into conceding an 83 minute penalty which the striker laced in to seal the result.
However it was a classic right wing attack in the 48th minute that put Otago into the driving seat as striker Dan Ede timed a late near post run to sweep the ball past Bannatyne and levitate the Otago bench in celebration.
In Ede, Canterbury’s top scorer last season, Dugdale, Knox and Reichwein, Fleming has gathered an attack of some potential.
All the Otago substitutes (2) got a run as Andy Coburn and Tom Connor came on in the last 20 minutes and added the resistance needed as Wellington coach Stu Jacobs urged his whole team forward still seeking his first goal of the season.
Fleming said,’ Its like coming into an oasis after a drought, to win in Wellington after so long, and at the final whistle there were some very happy guys
out there,’ said Fleming.
Due to the erratic NZFC fixtures, Otago will now have time for some navel gazing before playing its next NZFC match against Waitakere United at Carisbrook on Sunday 6 December.
Otago United squad 1. James Waggett 3. Tristan Prattley 5. Chris Jenkinson 6. Tom Sadd 8. Stu Kelly 9. Ryan Fachnie 10. David Dugdale 14. Dan Ede 16. Morgan Day (75) 17. Tim Horner 18. Nathan Knox (65) Substitutes 11. Andy Coburn (65) 13. Brian Brown (Gk) 15. Tom Connor (75)
Auckland City 2 (Ivan Vicelich 40, Grant Young 80)
Waitakere United 1 (Jason Rowley 33)
Halftime: 1-1
Canterbury United 1 (Tom Lancaster 39)
Hawke’s Bay United 1 (Joachim Rande 20)
Halftime: 1-1
Team Wellington Zero,
Otago United 2
(Dan Ede 48, Dave Dugdale pen 83)
Halftime: 0-0
Waikato FC 1 (Maurie Wasi 70)
YoungHeart Manawatu 2 (Campbell Banks 53, Seule Soromon 86)
Halftime: 0-0
| Auckland | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 10 |
| Manawatu | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Waitakere | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Otago | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Canterbury | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Hawke's Bay | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 4 |
| Waikato | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 11 | -6 | 3 |
| Wellington | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | -7 | 0 |