United through to quarter-finals, despite loss

Wairarapa United are through to the quarter-finals of the Hilton Petone pre-season men's soccer tournament despite their 4-2 loss to the Central League runners-up from last season, Olympic, at Petone on Sunday.
It was a defeat which brought a mixed reaction from coach Phil Keinzley, who was disappointed at some of his team's organisation on defence but pleased with their discipline in a game which saw Olympic lose three players for their next match, one because of a sending off and two others because they received their second yellow cards. With their quarter-final spot already secure Keinzley said he had instructed his players to take the referee out of the equation in the second half, at the start of which they trailed by 2-1.
"The big thing for us was to have everybody available for the quarters and thankfully we managed to do that," Keinzley said. "It did mean we weren't as enthusiastic as we might have been but the result wasn't a big deal and we could afford to slacken off."
Two of the four Olympic goals came from penalties and a third penalty was missed with Keinzley declining to be too specific on how he felt about those refereeing
decisions.
"They were interesting, that's about all you can say," he said.
At the same time Keinzley freely concedes Olympic deserved their win as they were better organised than Wairarapa United, especially on defence.
"We had too many lapses there , we turned over too much ball," he said.
Right half Aaron Spierling scored one of Wairarapa United's goals Pita Rabo getting the other and was their player of the match with a typically industrious display while others to shine were goalkeeper John Antcliff, Sakeo Valevou and Carl Shailer.
Wairarapa United are expected to meet Lower Hutt City in next Sunday's quarter-finals and Keinzley said he would be continuing a policy of experimentation, both in terms of personnel and positions.
"There are still question marks over who plays best where and that's what this tournament is all about, finding answers to those questions," Keinzley said.
The Wairarapa United seconds also played a pre-season "friendly" over the weekend, beating last season's local league champions Masterton Athletic 6-1 in a convincing performance.