United player stocks plummet for big game

Wairarapa United will have just the one reserve on the bench for the match which has been labelled as perhaps the most important in the club's history, their Capital Soccer premier division fixture with Lower Hutt City on Saturday.
The small roster of players with which Wairarapa United have been operating all season has been made even smaller with news that midfielder Anton Ross will be holidaying in the South Island.
And with another of the regulars in Guiseppe Cagliari overseas the situation has been reached where Wairarapa United will have to promote one player from their second team, which is playing a Capital third division game in Wellington on the same day, to give them any reserves at all.
Which is hardly an ideal situation either as the seconds are currently in a battle to avoid relegation and can ill afford to lose any of their better players for even one game at this stage of the season.
"It's just what happens when even one player calls off," premier division coach Phil Keinzley said. "We don't have the numbers to come and go on that other clubs have, it's just a fact of life for us."
Defeat by a Lower Hutt City side certain to be boosted by the inclusion by many of their third-placed central league squad could severely dent Wairarapa United's chances of winning the premier division title, and with it a shot at competing at central league level themselves next season.
For a Tawa win on the same day would see them draw level with Wairarapa United at the top of the premier division points table with the bonus of having three more games to play while Wairarapa United will have two.
"There probably hasn't been a more important game in the club's history when you consider what the result could mean," Keinzley said. "We have never had a team playing at the highest level possible and this season we have a real chance to do that. A win on Saturday won't guarantee it but it will be a step in the right direction, a loss could have us heading the other way."
Just where Saturday's match will be played won't be finalised until tomorrow but with the weather forecast so poor the prospects are it will have to be transferred from the Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton because of the bog-like ground conditions there.
Keinzley himself was keen to use another Masterton ground, Hullena Park, should that be the case but he has already been advised by the Masterton club that it won't be available even though no matches are apparently scheduled there for this Saturday. Therefore the most likely venue is Howard Booth Park in Carterton with the Carterton club signifying they will make a ground available should Wairarapa United need to utilise it, a decision which has Keinzley singing their praises.
"Obviously clubs are keen to rest their grounds whenever possible at this time of the year so it's good to know that Carterton will help us out should the need arise," he said. "And, quite honestly, I can't see that being avoided with the weather being the way it is.