OPINION: One won. Lost one.

That was New Zealand Football's scorecard on Friday after the national body gave up their faint Olympic Games qualification hopes just hours after the All Whites notched their first win in two years.

The NZF board ignored legal advice that they had a strong case to appeal the Oceania Football Confederation's decision to dump them out of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Papua New Guinea for fielding an ineligible player.

They could have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but chose not to take that costly step. Chairman Deryck Shaw said they didn't want to risk further action against other players who may have represented New Zealand under the same interpretation since a 2008 Fifa rule change requiring overseas born players to live in a country for five years after the age of 18.

Shaw also claimed the wider football community wanted the matter closed and the focus shifted back to the football field.

It's hard to believe dollars weren't a motivating factor too. NZF is understood to have already spent a six-figure sum on legal advice. The bill was expected to rise to a cool $1 million if a case was taken to the CAS.

The NZF board's call will still be bitterly disappointed to those New Zealand players who may never get another chance to play at an Olympic tournament.

Fortunately, many are already getting a gallop in Anthony Hudson's new-look All Whites team.

Hudson broke his duck as All Whites coach with a 1-0 win over Oman in Muscat on Friday after a fifth minute goal by "veteran" striker Chris Wood, 23.

The 34-year-old coach brought himself some breathing space after a gutsy win over Asian's 12th-ranked team, who were on a seven-game unbeaten streak.

Hudson had been feeling the heat after a barren run, which earned the ire of All Whites' greats who accused him of picking kids and giving away jerseys.

The Londoner had been talking a good game since arriving in New Zealand. Now his team's showing signs they can walk the talk too.

Despite reservations from some people who know the New Zealand game inside out, Hudson stuck to his guns and his kids came right in Oman.

Only Wood, with 39 caps, and Michael McGlinchey with 31 had any real runs on the board at international level.

Hudson fielded two teenage new caps, 18-year-old attacker Henry Cameron and 19-year-old centreback Sam Brotherton and brought two more on off the bench, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, 20, and Logan Rogerson, 17.

The average age of the starting lineup with 23, with leadership provided by goalscorer Wood, McGlinchey and Greek stopper Themi Tzimopoulos, the grandad of the team at close to 30.

There was much to admire about the way these callow All Whites battled and scrapped to hold on to their early lead and close out a hard-earned victory.

It was a friendly so couldn't be compared to the doughty scoreless draw in the 2009 World Cup playoff in Bahrain, let alone the 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia on the road to Spain in 1981.

Oman, ranked 92 in the world, weren't all that flash, but it was still some accomplishment for New Zealand, ranked 163, to topple them on home turf.

Cameron, who plays regularly for Blackpool in English football's third tier, looked particularly promising on the left flank before a knee injury cut him down in his tracks. He looks skilful but stronger and more direct than Ryan Thomas or Marco Rojas.

Wood, the Leeds United striker, took his goal clinically while McGlinchey, usually an attacking player for the Wellington Phoenix, impressed in a foreign defensive role, just in front of a back four marshalled manfully by Brotherton and Tzimopoulos.

McGlinchey had to be deployed there with the attack-minded Thomas and Rojas also in the midfield mix.

Factor in skipper Winston Reid, Ipswich Town's Tommy Smith, veteran striker Shane Smeltz, keeper Glen Moss and midfielder Bill Tuiloma - all absent for one reason or another - and the future could be starting to look a little brighter for the All Whites.

Which is welcome news after the Olympic tournament eligibility debacle, which has been flushed for posterity now.