United hoping for home support

Gary Caffell
It might sound Irish but Wairarapa United are counting on home advantage giving them a winning edge in their crucial Central League promotion-relegation soccer match with Stop Out at Hutt Park, Petone tomorrow.
Wairarapa United are travelling into enemy territory but such is the number of their supporters expected to be on hand the noise factor from the sidelines could favour them.
"We'd like to think our supporters will actually outnumber theirs," Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley said. "That would be a huge boost for us & it would be just like playing at home, wouldn't it?"
Keinzley said the first of the two promotion-relegation matches against Stop Out, played at the Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton last weekend, provided a classic example of what crowd support could do.
Up 1-0 Wairarapa United had to withstand a desperate late onslaught from a Stop Out side down to 10 men and the encouragement from their fans had played a big part in them not conceding a goal.
"They (the crowd) helped get us home, no doubt about that," Keinzley said.
Tomorrow's match has been widely touted as the most important in Wairarapa United's 14-year history, and it's easy to understand why.
Ever since they were formed the objective has been to have their men's team attain the highest status available to them, Central League, and they are now just 90 minutes away (penalty shootout excepted) of either realising their dream, or again being consigned to playing in the Capital premier division in 2009.
To beat Stop Out they have to finish their two-game series with the better goal aggregate and in Wairarapa United's favour is they already have the one goal in the bag, and the first goal they score tomorrow will actually be worth two because they are playing away from home.
There is always the prospect, of course, that Stop Out will keep Wairarapa United scoreless on this occasion but considering they have scored at least once in every game they have played this season you'd have to fancy them doing so again, wouldn't you?
That Stop Out will be a more disciplined and professional unit than they were last weekend is guaranteed.
They were pretty much a rabble in that sense for most of the game at the Pugh Sports Bowl and it was no surprise they had a player sent off midway through the second half. Indeed they were probably fortunate to have only one missing at the game's end.
The mood in the Stop Out camp at the after-match function was a story in itself with the faces failing to hide they fact they were hugely disappointed at the way they had played, and were intent on a much better effort second time round.
In fact, their coach said as much in a brief speech.
There was though considerable room for improvement in the Wairarapa United performance too.
Striker Seule Soromon was his usual electrifying self on attack but for his flair to be fully utilised he needs more support, and that job falls to Paul Gregory tomorrow.
A big game from him is an absolute necessity because Stop Out are sure to have had the containing of Soromon as a prime requisite in their thinking over the past seven days.
Also outstanding for Wairarapa United last weekend was central midfielder Miriek Tvaroh and it was very noticeable that when he left the field after taking a blow to the leg an injury from which he has fully recovered the composure in that part of the field was badly dented as well.
Tvaroh too can expect some close "attention" from Stop Out in the return game so the other midfielders him need to lift their efforts to help ease the pressure on him.
There were worrying signs last weekend as well that Wairarapa United's defensive work around their own penalty box was not always as tight as they would like with Waisake Sabutu's header off the line saving at least one certain goal & maybe the most defining moment of all in their Central League bid if the Hutt Park clash is as closely-contested as most pundits are predicting.
With first time successes in the Hilton Petone Cup pre-season tourney and the Capital premier division series behind them Wairarapa United have already had what could be called a memorable 2008 season but no one understands better than coach Keinzley that a poor result tomorrow will be remembered more than anything which has gone before.
"You get this close you don't think of losing, it's definitely not an option," he said.
The Wairarapa United line-up is:
Matt Borren; Carl Shailer, James Oxtoby, Waisake Sabutu, Andy Robertson, Sakeo Valevou, Miriek Tvaroh, Guiseppe Cagliari, Anton Ross, Paul Gregory, Seule Soromon. Reserves: Aaron Spierling, Kota Maeno, Anaru Te Rangi.