Tauranga City's under 19 team has more than lived up to expectations with a top eight finish at the national youth football tournament organised by the Napier City Rovers club over Labour Weekend.

The team were unlucky to go down 2-1 to Hamilton's Melville United in extra time of their quarterfinal, after storming through the group stage with four wins and one narrow loss.

'The boys were fantastic,” says Nic Millichip, the club's senior men's team coach who went to the tournament as an assistant to coach Cameron Grieve.

'It was a very good tournament, the boys looked really smart.”

Reaching the quarterfinal was a significant achievement for the team, who were competing in the main draw of the tournament for the first time after reaching the final of the satellite division of the event last year. Cambridge, the other club promoted alongside Tauranga City, were relegated again after losing four and drawing one of their matches.

A 3-1 win over Wellington's Island Bay United gave the team, containing a number of the well-performed Tauranga Boys' College first XI, a confidence-building start to the tournament. Adam Davidson with two and Ryan Peddle put them comfortably ahead before Island Bay netted a late consolation goal.

And it could have been a bigger victory margin, Nic says.

'The boys came out fired up in that one, with really good intensity. They looked smart, we were really pleased with how they'd taken all the training and put it into practice.”

Peddle then added two more, and was joined by Stan Rust, Riley Bidois and Alfie Cole as the side swept Tawa aside 5-0.

They then rounded out the first day of the tournament with a 2-0 defeat of Auckland's Manurewa, with Alex Elliot giving them the lead and Davidson adding a third to his personal tally.

Day two began with the team's only defeat of the group stage, a narrow 1-0 reversal to Miramar Rangers of Wellington.

Adam Davidson was on target again however in the following match, giving them a 1-0 victory over WaiBOP rivals Hamilton Wanderers, and putting them into the quarterfinals as comprehensive group winners.

'After a slower start in the first 10 minutes of the quarterfinal they probably had the better of the rest of it,” says Nic.

Melville were first on the board, but City's just reward came when Bidois did well to get himself free to head the ball goalwards from a corner, though a deflection off a defender meant it went down as an own goal.

With the game locked up at 1-all extra time was required, and a penalty shootout was entering the minds of the Tauranga City coaching staff as the clock ticked on. It turned out not to be needed, however, as Melville found the back of the net just minutes from the end of the additional period.

Despite that disappointment the club is stoked with team's performance, Nic says.

'A very successful campaign, we're really pleased with how the boys played. They did themselves proud to be up in the main draw first year in, and to be a relatively young side and be so competitive.”

Team top-scorer Adam Davidson was one to particularly impress Nic.

'He goes about his work, he doesn't get too excited. He's really calm and gets through a lot of work, just powers it out, but he's not overly flamboyant. He just gets the job done.”

Goalkeeper Daniel Hymers, of Otumoetai College, also got a rap from Nic.

'Daniel's distribution is fantastic, and there weren't too many mistakes.

'He strikes the ball well, and his reactions are really quick. He did very well.”

As the youngest of the team Tauranga Boys' year 10 student Vincent Phirun more than justified his place, he says.

'Vinnie did really well, he was really tidy and he just kept hold of possession and did a fantastic job.”

From this point Nic expects the boys will be looking for a bit of rest after a hard winter, and some may be going on to national age-group football.

He also believes a number will still be eligible for the club's next youth campaign at the Auckland City FC under 17 tournament early next season.

Then he's hoping to have some of the team's standouts putting their hands up for selection for Tauranga City's Northern League division 1 campaign next year.

'There's no doubts from our side what we'd like to see happen,” he says.

Tauranga City at the Napier City Rovers national under 19 Labour Weekend tournament:

Game 1: Tauranga City 3 (Adam Davidson 2, Ryan Peddle), Island Bay United 1

Game 2: Tauranga City 5 (Peddle 2, Stan Rust, Riley Bidois, Alfie Cole), Tawa 0

Game 3: Tauranga City 2 (Alex Elliot, Davidson), Manurewa 0

Game 4: Tauranga City 0, Miramar 1

Game 5: Tauranga City 1, (Davidson), Hamilton Wanderers 0

Quarterfinal: Tauranga City 1 (OG), Melville 2 (AET)

Tauranga Boys' College's Adam Davidson was Tauranga City's top scorer at the Napier tournament