15 Nov 2009

Fallon and Paston heroes as NZ advance to football world cup

5:21 am on 15 November 2009

The All Whites have sealed a place at next year's football world cup in South Africa, beating Bahrain one nil in Wellington.

Rory Fallon scored the only goal of the match, when he headed home Leo Bertos's corner in the final minute of the first half.

Bahrain had the chance to equalise in the second half when they were awarded a penalty, but New Zealand keeper Mark Paston made the biggest save of his career.

New Zealand's only previous World Cup appearance was in Spain in 1982.