Morobe United go down to Lae City in NSL round four

LAE City saw off a determined Morobe United 3-1 in their fourth round Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League fixture in Lae on Saturday.
The local derby entertained Lae football fans as the clash was competitive for stretches but ultimately the Lae Biscuit-sponsored franchise under coach Peter Gunemba had an even share of the ball and did enough to tame their fellow Lae side.
City were slow to contain the threats posed by United’s Hendry Ronny, Obert Simon, Giwi Simon, Bruce Tiampo and Emmanuel Simongi who held their own against the more experienced and talented Toti side.
After a 0-0 first half, City’s big guns made their presence felt with coach Gunemba making a tactical substitution injecting the experienced Emmanuel Simon who had an impact scoring the first goal after weaving his way through the United defence to slot a goal past goalkeeper Vagi Koniel for a 1-0 lead.
United gifted City a second goal when some overzealous defence saw Gabby Yanum bring down star striker Raymond Gunemba in the box. Sharp shooter Nigel Dabinyaba scored off the direct penalty for a 2-0 lead.
United stayed in the match thanks to a hand ball by Junior Dabinyaba which Emmanuel Simongi slotted to trail 2-1 but all the hard work was undone when United’s Dinniget Luiane give away another penalty when challenging Nigel Dabinyaba for the ball. Substitute Emmanuel Airem potted the penalty for City to get out to 3-1 which was the final score.
Morobe coach Samson Steven said his side were competitive and had their opportunities but did not make the most of them apart from the penalties conceded.
He said his side had faded in the second half after a strong first half and allowed City to come back into the contest.
City’s Peter Gunemba said he had a jumbled line up but he was pleased that they had rose to get the win against a quality opponent.
He said Morobe had come into the match with an effective game plan that worked in the first half but they could not maintain it in the second half.
He admitted that City had allowed United to rise in confidence but they had managed to handle the challenge in the end.
“Congratulations to Morobe for giving us good challenge in the first half and seeing that I realised that we needed to do changes to inject impact players. The changes made the difference.”