Wellington, Jan 31 NZPA - Otago continued their charge for a place in the New Zealand Football Championship semifinals with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Wellington in Dunedin today.

With table topping Auckland and Waitakere certainties for the semfinals, the battle for the fourth semifinal spot heated up with Waikato's upset 3-2 win over Manawatu.

Otago extended the gap between themselves and the pack to four points and may now be eyeing a return to the NZFC play-offs for the first time since the 2005-06 season.

Waikato climbed off the bottom of the table and into seventh place with their come-from-behind 3-2 victory in Palmerston North, while Hawke's Bay's match with Canterbury United was postponed due to a waterlogged and unplayable pitch.

Yesterday, leaders Auckland City and Waitakere United fought out an exciting 1-1 draw before a bumper crowd of 2238 at Fred Taylor Park in Whenuapai.

Both teams remain locked on 20 points, but Auckland still have two games in hand on their rivals and a superior goal difference.

Chad Coombes scored after 51 minutes but Waitakere defender Tim Myers pulled a goal back in the 70th minute.

At Carisbrook, Wellington took an early 1-0 lead courtesy of a Chris Davies header after just three minutes.

Otago bounced back when a Ben Light snapshot levelled the scores on the half hour mark.

Wellington were hit by a sucker-punch just before halftime when a long pass by Rhys Henderson found Dave Dugdale who provided a neat finish to give Otago a 2-1 halftime advantage.

Light put the game beyond Wellington's reach with his second goal in the 48th minute.

Manawatu were on course to consolidate fourth spot and add a little breathing room between themselves and Canterbury after a Daniel Benson shot and a Seule Soromon chip pushed them two goals ahead of Waikato.

But a goal from Jeff Campbell four minutes after the break began a 25 minute goal-rush from Waikato.

Campbell equalised in the 69th minute and Michael Gwyther gave the visitors a 70th minute lead.