United lose star striker for Cup clash

Anderson Meats Wairarapa United will be without star striker Lai Gataurua for their Chatham Cup knockout soccer match, against in-form Petone at Howard Booth Park, Carterton on Saturday.
Gataurua scored two goals in Wairarapa United's impressive 4-0 win over Marist Wellington in a Capital premier division encounter last weekend, but also had the mortification of being sent from the field after receiving two yellow cards for repeat offending.
A one week's suspension is the penalty for such an offence, and so Gataurua will miss the Cup fixture with Petone,
Normally losing a player of his skill would be a huge blow for any club side leading into such an important game, but Wairarapa United is fortunate to have considerable depth in the striking role and his replacement, fellow Fijian Sakeo Valevou, has international experience.
Not only that, Valevou has been scoring consistently for the Wairarapa United seconds, who are only one point off the lead in the Capital third division series and will, in fact, meet leaders Lower Hutt in Wellington this weekend.
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley is confident that Valevou in combination with fellow striker, Pia Rabo, will make a big impression on Saturday's game
"Sure, it's a blow to lose Lai when he has been playing so well, but Sakeo is a proven goal scorer too, and he'll measure up no problem," Keinzley said. "We're just lucky to have someone of his calibre waiting in the wings??..we can honestly say we have lost one good player and replaced him with another."
Keinzley accepts that Wairarapa United will go into the Cup match as the underdogs, a label guaranteed after Petone beat them 3-0 in a Capital premier division match earlier in the season.
Petone have won all eight of their games in that competition, scoring 22 goals while conceding just five, and with 24 points already have a six-point lead over Wairarapa United, who with six wins from their eight games are sitting in second place on 18. Interestingly enough they have scored more goals than Petone ? 25 ? but have also conceded more, 12. Keinzley is firm in his belief, however, that Wairarapa United can turn the tables on Petone on Saturday, recalling that despite having a player sent off, they had still managed to keep Petone scoreless in the second half of their previous game after a "pretty awful" first half effort.
"To me that game showed that we were capable of beating them, providing that we played to our potential all the way though," he said.
That's the important thing?..you can't have lapses of concentration against a team like them and expect to win ? it just won't happen."
Disrupting the Petone midfield will be a major objective for Wairarapa United as that is where their main strength lies.
"They have a class act in the midfield around whom most of their attacking play revolves, and we have to shut him down," Keinzley said.
"And we need to be wary of the attacking capabilities of their other midfielders and fullbacks too??..their movement off the ball is a lot quicker than most other teams, and they are good at creating space for themselves" The Wairarapa United starting line-up is much as expected, with the unlucky player being 16-year-old Aaron Spierling who will come off the reserve bench . Keinzley said Spierling's situation was by no means a mark of dissatisfaction with him on his part, but more a need to combat experience with experience.
"They (Petone) have a lot of old heads who know all the tricks of the trade, and we think it makes sense to utilise our own experience too," he said.
The Wairarapa United team is:Tony Jamieson, Andy Robertson, Robbie Bull, Petero Dauniseka, Carl Shailer, Guiseppe Cagliari, Murray Burling, James Oxtoby, Troy Burling, Pita Rabo, Sakeo Valevou. Reserves: Aaron Spierling, Hayden Spierling.