Time to get serious

Wairarapa United will have a chance to gauge their readiness to compete at Capital Soccer premier division level when they play Brooklyn Northern United at Howard Booth Park, Carterton tomorrow.
It will be the first time this year that Anderson's Meats Wairarapa United have played a team of the same status and while the result will be of secondary importance to building combinations for the 2006 season's official start date of April 1, coach Phil Keinzley is keen to see them make a positive statement.
"We have to get some shape into our play and this is the ideal opportunity to do that against quality opposition," he said. "It's not so much about winning and losing but playing well. We have to step up to the mark in that respect."
Keinzley said Wairarapa United were guilty of making too many "silly errors" in their pre-season game against Miramar Rangers, especially on defence, and it was vital that a more complete performance was forthcoming tomorrow.
"We only have a couple of weeks left to get the necessary structure into our game so it's important we don't waste any time," he said.
Retention of possession is one area where Keinzley wants to see improvement against BNU.
He said too much possession was wasted in the Miramar game through poor passing and inadequate support play and those aspects needed to be addressed, and quickly at that.
"We can't afford to give away quality ball. We have to retain it for as long a period as we can," he said. " We have to be more patient, perhaps even slow things down at times."
The Wairarapa United second team will also play their BNU counterparts tomorrow, the start time for both games being 2pm.