Rabo's goals top off a great week

It was appropriate that it should be Pita Rabo who scored the two goals which took Wairarapa United to a 2-1 win over Island Bay in their Capital Soccer premier division match played at the Pugh Sports Bowl on Sunday.
Both goals were spectacular affairs, the first coming from a header which saw Rabo rise above several opposition defenders and the second a replica of the goal he scored for Fiji in their upset win over the All Whites in Suva last year, an absolute rocket from all of 30 metres out.
Not only did Sunday's match signal Rabo's 50th appearance for Wairarapa United but it came just two days after his wife had presented him with a baby boy.
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley said his team had gone into Sunday's match determined to mark the popular Rabo's half-century in the approved manner and while "circumstances" dictated their performance was not as good as it might have been they were delighted to come away with the maximum three points and a clear second place on the competition table.
Keinzley was loathe to comment in any detail on what those "circumstances" might be but anybody who saw the action would agree that some of the refereeing decisions made were confusing at best, and downright impossible to understand at worst.
The second half penalty awarded to Island Bay after Wairarapa United defender James Oxtoby had made what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate challenge for a high bouncing ball was clearly in the latter category and took from Wairarapa United the comfort of a 2-0 lead with still about half of the second spell to play.
That his team held their composure and their one goal advantage through until the game's end was especially pleasing for Keinzley because they had faltered more than once in that situation in the recent past.
"It's important not to let your frustrations affect your performance when that happens and it says a lot for the character of the players that they kept their cool,"he said. "The emphasis then had to be on ensuring that we protected our lead and while it wasn't always pretty soccer at least it was effective"
Keinzley had been "happy enough" with Wairarapa United's effort prior to that Island Bay penalty although he conceded there were occasions when ball retention was a problem, especially in the midfield. "We were a bit loose with our passing,we got a bit rushed at times," he said,. "But the good thing was we kept creating scoring chances and the couple of goals we did get were beauties, weren't they?"
Coming as it did on the back of a 5-0 hammering of. the then second placed Miramar Rangers the Island Bay result was another indication that Wairarapa United had put the controversies surrounding their earlier lost to Tawa behind them and that promotion to central league for next season was still very much an achievable objective.
Keinzley said the current emphasis though was very much on taking one game at a time because thinking too far ahead was fraught with dangers. "Every premier division team is a challenge and you can't take anything as a matter of course," he said. "We've dropped games we should have won in the past and that's what we need to guard against happening again."
This coming Sunday will see Wairarapa United at home to Waterside- Karori, the team which actually beat Tawa in the Hilton Petone pre-season tourney before losing to Wairarapa United in the semi-finals there, Wairarapa United going on to win the grand final as well.
Meanwhile, the Wairarapa United seconds are also holding down second place in the Capital third division competition after successive wins over Eastboune (5-2) and Lower Hutt (4-0). That left them on seven points having registered a draw and a loss in their other two games.
Two Wairarapa teams, Masterton and Douglas Villa, played in the first round of Chatham Cup elimination games over the weekend and both tasted defeat, Masterton losing to Eastbourne 3-1 and Douglas Villa going down to Naenae 7-0.