Wairarapa United now have no chance of winning promotion to the central league men's soccer competition in 2007.
Their hopes have been dashed by a ruling from Capital Soccer that only the top team in the premier division grade will go to central league, and then only if they can win
a promotion-relegation game against the bottom placed side in that series.
Wairarapa United currently lie third on the premier division table and were hoping the top three sides would be in central league next season and coach Phil Keinzley, pictured above, admits the latest news is a "downer".
"Obviously we can't win the premier division now so the possibility of getting into the central league had left us with something to play for," he said.
"It's disappointing to learn we don't even have that to target now."
Wairarapa United drew 2-2 with Upper Hutt City at Upper Hutt on Saturday to give them 27pts with two matches still to be played.
Up front is Petone on 40pts, with Tawa just one behind on 39pts. Fourth is Waterside-Karori on 25pts.
Keinzley was happy enough with the way Wairarapa United performed on Saturday against an Upper Hutt side which placed huge emphasis on physical domination.
"There were times when it looked more like a rugby match than a soccer match," he said. "They were very aggressive in the tackle, probably a bit too aggressive on occasions."
Keinzley said his team had strung together some useful attacks and possibly deserved more than the goals from Lai Gataurua and James Oxtoby.
"We had enough possession and territory to win the game, but it didn't quite happen," he said.
Outstanding for Wairarapa was Charles Kendall, the replacement goalkeeper for Tony Jamieson who was on suspension. He was always calm and collected under pressure.
Also impressing was Dave Abbott, who started as the only reserve and came on after just 10 minutes when Fijian international Petero Dauniseka was injured.
Despite not playing for some five weeks Abbott slotted into the left half position well, doing some good work on both attack and defence.
