Football: Miramar's rematch outlook alters

FLASHBACK: Miramar Rangers savour Chatham Cup victory over the Rovers in Napier three weeks ago. PHOTO/FILE

Miramar Rangers have had a few hiccups since beating Napier City Rovers last month in a Chatham Cup clash so their outlook on tomorrow's rematch here is a little different .

"For us, we could win all the remaining games and still not win the league," says coach Wiremu Patrick before the 2pm kick-off against the Conroy Removals-sponsored Blues in their crucial Lotto Central League match at Park Island, Napier.

The visitors from Wellington are sitting fourth on the league table but are still alive in the national knockout cup campaign, although Patrick is mindful they have a mathematical chance of claiming the double.

"We need to win all our games and have [Wellington] Olympic and Napier drop points in their other games so it's not in our control," says the 35-year-old financial adviser, who played his entire winter career for Miramar, including helping them lift the Central League silverware four times and the Chatham Cup in 2010.

The midfielder, who also represented Team Wellington in the ASB Premiership (summer national league), says Wellington United beat the Rangers 5-1 in what the victors rated their best performance in two years.

"And then with Stop Out after that, we were leading 1-nil but then went down 2-1," he says, suspecting mental and physical fatigue probably played some part in their downward spiral.

"When you have a good cup win there's a risk of mentally switching so we're guilty of that and they [ oppositions] took their chances."

Patrick is loath to "prioritise" cup glory over a league one but accepts the former has national recognition and the latter regional.

He throws similar weight on the Central League because teams soldier on for 18 games to see who's left standing and that is something to treasure.

It's been a long winter for Miramar with nine players out of the wider squad through injuries alone.

"We haven't had a top team all together all season," he says. The side has enjoyed more stability in the past 3-4 weeks, although he sees the irony that it is almost the end of the winter campaign.

Patrick, who is in his second year at the helm of the club's flagship team, isn't the type to gamble with injured players.

"When you're playing and you go on thinking about not getting hurt, then you do."

The forecast of dying northwest gales, punctuated by rain and a balmy 20C tomorrow doesn't faze him or his troops, simply because they are quite used to dealing with four seasons in the space of a day.

He has a lot of respect for the Blues and believes it is mutual, something that can be attributed to Bay-based players playing for Team Wellington.

While both teams will try to entertain in cup fashion, Patrick suspects he and counterpart Bill Robertson will want to see some shutters put up "in the bigger scheme of things".

He saluted the Rovers' "great hospitality" even though they had lost the cup.