United get ideal Cup warm-up

Wairarapa United had a grand dress rehearsal for their Chatham Cup match with high fliers Petone at Carterton next weekend when they beat Marist Wellington 4-0 in a Capital Soccer premier division match at Howard Booth Park on Saturday.
The home side had the game in safe keeping when they scored three goals without reply in the first half and while they managed only one more in the second half they spent most of that spell one player short, striker Lai Gataurua having been set from the field when given his second yellow card.
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley was delighted with the overall performance, saying his team had responded well to some aggressive attacking play from Marist through the first 20 minutes and then taken control.
"We always thought they (Marist) would come at us early on, but we were tight and assertive ourselves on defence and they couldn't break through," Keinsley said. "And when they became frustrated at not turning territory into goals we were able to apply the same pressure at the other end of the field, and score some good goals."
The first Wairarapa United goal came after defender Petero Dauniseka had eluded six or seven defenders in a run which took him almost the length of the field. His cross to striker Pita Rabo was a beauty and Rabo had no trouble finding the net.
Both the second and third Wairarapa United goals were scored by Gataurua and the only goal of the second half went to replacement Troy Burling, who came on for the hard-working Guiseppe Cagliari.who had basically run himself into the ground. Burling picked up a a pass from left half Nick Keinzley, who was in the starting line-up for the first time, and showed great composure in beating both a fullback and goalkeeper before slotting the ball home.
With an eye to the Petone game next weekend coach Keinzley was thrilled with the way Wairarapa United maintained a high level of concentration through the whole game
"We haven't done that as often as we would like this season and this was a lot better," he said.
One of the more impressive players for Wairarapa United was fullback Andy Robertson, who adopted a high workrate on defence and excelled under pressure.
Petone are the only unbeaten side in the premier division series and Saturday's win saw Wairarapa United move into second place on the points table, the same position as held by their second team in the Capital third division series. They beat Waterside-Karori 3-2 on Saturday and are only one point behind competition leaders Lower Hutt who they play in Wellington next weekend.