Petone bring United to earth

Petone ended the winning run of Andersons Meat Wairarapa United in the Capital Soccer premier division league when they beat them 3-0 at Petone on Easter Monday.
It was Wairarapa United's first defeat in four games and coach Phil Keinzley was making no excuse for the loss, despite the fact his side was reduced to 10 players early in the second half when James Oxtoby was sent from the field for repeated tackling infringements.
Instead he was quick to point out that Petone had scored all three of their goals in the first half, and that Wairarapa United had actually lifted their effort when one player short.
"We had a strong first 10 minutes and the rest of the first half was very ordinary," Keinzley said. "Mentally and physically we just weren't there, and we only had ourselves to blame for that. The second half was better but the bird had flown by then."
The fact Wairarapa United had played ? and beaten ? Upper Hutt just two days previously was also going to be a test of their fitness against a Petone team which has still to taste defeat.
Petone too had played and won on the Saturday, but with 16 players in their squad had rested a number of their key players with a view to keeping them fresh for the Wairarapa United clash.
It was a tactic which worked well for them with Keinzley conceding that Wairarapa United, which basically fielded the same line-up on both days, were not nearly as competitive as they should have been in the many 50-50 situations which evolved during the game, and that they struggled with their speed on and off the ball.
"I suppose you could say we were outplayed, but really it was a more of us playing ordinary soccer rather than them playing well," he said. "On what we saw there's no doubt we could measure up to them on a good day."
Outstanding for Wairarapa United was fullback Petero Dauniseka, who not only shone on defence, but who actually had more shots on goal than any other member of his side as well. Murray Burling also impressed with his high workrate as did Aaron Spierling.
Oxtoby's sending off means Wairarapa United will be without him when they come up against another of the more favoured premier division sides, Waterside-Karori, this coming weekend and it seems certain they will also be missing striker Stanley Waita, who scored a hat-trick against Upper Hutt, but struggled with a hamstring strain against Petone and had to be substituted.