Fighting words for Wairarapa

The high-flying Wairarapa United football team will play their last home game of the season when they face Maycenvale United in the central league at Howard Booth Park, Carterton, on Sunday.
They have two good reasons to bow out on a high note; firstly to reward a large and loyal fan base for their unstinted support and, secondly, to keep alive their hopes of overhauling leaders Miramar Rangers on the league table.
Coach Phil Keinzley is wary of any talk which suggests a Wairarapa United win is inevitable with Maycenvale near the bottom of the table.
Indeed he sees that as being more of a positive for the visitors as they will have the incentive of picking up points which could help them avoid the possibility of relegation a little way down the track.
"We've said it all season: There is so little difference between the top and bottom teams in the central league that you can't take anything for granted," Keinzley said.
Complicating matters for Wairarapa United is that they are carrying just 12 players in their squad and two of them, striker Seule Soromon and defender Pablo Moya, are on the doubtful list.
Soromon limped from the field late in the second half of the Chatham Cup quarter-final with Waitakere City last weekend with what appeared at be a hamstring strain.
He was to have the problem assessed by a doctor yesterday.
Moya had the bad luck to roll an ankle in training on Tuesday night, continuing an unfortunate trend for Wairarapa United players, three of whom suffered the same fate at training sessions at Howard Booth Park this season.
If Soromon can't take the field, Wairarapa United have an able replacement in Campbell Banks, who made such a good impression when he came off the bench in the Waitakere City match.
But if Moya is out as well, Keinzley will have to bring a member of the Wairarapa United seconds squad into his starting line-up.
Meantime, Keinzley is planning to fly to Auckland on Saturday to watch Wairarapa United's Chatham Cup semifinal opponents, Bay Olympic, in action.
They lead the northern region league by a wide margin and if they beat second-placed Three Kings United this weekend the title will be theirs with still three games to play.
Keinzley is making the trip north to enhance his scant knowledge of the Bay Olympic line-up and of the style of play Wairarapa United can expect to encounter when they clash in Auckland on August 13 or 14.
He also has to decide the colour of the strip in which Wairarapa United will play, because their normal green strip is regarded as being too similar to that of Bay Olympic, whose players also wear green.
In the past, red has been the colour of Wairarapa United's alternative strip but whether that will be the case again depends on what is available from their suppliers at such short notice.
If Wairarapa United happen to beat Bay Olympic there is the possibility that the Chatham Cup final towards the end of August will be played away from the usual venue of Auckland, because Bay Olympic are the only team from there still in the reckoning.
The other semifinal will be between Caversham (Dunedin) and Napier City Rovers.
In the Caversham side will be a former Wairarapa United and Rathkeale player, Anton Ross.
Ross, a left-footed midfielder, is studying at Otago University.