United look to break four-year drought

Horse and Hound Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley makes no bones about what it will take for his side to beat Tawa in their crucial Capital Soccer premier division match at Redwood Park, Tawa tomorrow.
A win for Wairarapa United would not only break a four-year losing drought against Tawa, it will also have them overtake that team at the top of the competition table.
But Keinzley is adamant that will only happen if each and every one of the Wairarapa United players is 100 per cent committed to the team effort.
"Any weak links and Tawa will capitalise, that's something you can depend on," he said, in recalling their first round clash when Tawa won 4-1 at Masterton's Queen Elizabeth Park. "We weren't totally focused then and they punished us," he said.
Spearheading the Tawa attack will be veteran Peter Withers, whose curriculum vitae includes a stint with Liverpool in the English premier league.
He made a huge impact when coming off the reserve bench in that first round clash but Keinzley doesn't intend to have any specific plans in place to keep him in check. "We can't afford to worry too much about one player, we have to contain the lot of them", he said.
To that end Keinzley will be stressing the need for Wairarapa United to stay composed and structured on defence, thereby reducing the chances of Tawa exposing deficiencies which they can turn to their advantage.
And he is also mindful of the defensive tactics applied by Tawa at their last meeting when they successfully "double teamed" Wairarapa United's most prolific scorers, Seule Soromon and Pita Rabo.
The likelihood of that occurring again has Keinzley thinking that greater responsibility on attack may have be taken this time round by the likes of Sakeo Valevou, Anton Ross, Andy Robertson, Paul Gregory and Carl Shailer, all of whom are capable of getting themselves on the scoresheet as well.
"We may even have to use Seule and Pita as dummy runners rather than as potential goal scorers, they could actually be more value to us when they haven't got the ball," he said.
Keinzley is keen too for his reserve bench to add sting to the team effort when they are introduced to the action and with players of the calibre of Aaron Spierling and Guiseppe Cagliari there that shouldn't be a problem.
The Wairarapa United seconds will also play Tawa in a Capital third division match at the Pugh Sports Bowl tomorrow and with Tawa currently just one place off the bottom of the points table a win for the locals seems likely.
On the local soccer front matches in the Knockout Cup will be played tomorrow with Trevs Sports Masterton expected to beat Farmlands Masterton Presidents and McAuleys Masterton favourites over Carterton Skulls. The other game between Sports Arena Douglas Villa and Carterton Wanderers should be a close affair judging on the 2-all draw they had when they met just last weekend.