Upset draw helps United

Wairarapa United are poised to make a strong challenge for Capital Soccer's premier division title in 2006.
Results in the latest series of matches on Saturday boosted their chances of competition success with leaders Petone being held to a 1-1 draw by lowly Upper Hutt City, thereby allowing second-placed Tawa and third-placed Wairarapa United to close the gap on them.
Mind you, neither of them had it easy this weekend either, Tawa beating Western Suburbs 1-0 and Wairarapa United edging out Island Bay, also by 1-0.
Petone now head the points table with 28 while Tawa have 26 and Wairarapa United 25 and when you consider a win is worth three points there is virtually nothing in it.
Close as it is though, Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley believes his side cannot afford to drop any points between now and the end of the season if they are to have any chance of becoming premier division champions.
Not only were second round wins over Petone and Tawa an absolute necessity but they couldn't afford to lose to any of the lower-placed sides either.
"The competition is there for the taking but it will only happen for us if we can keep winning ... no other results will be good enough," he said.
Keinzley said recent results showed that while the top three sides were well clear on the points table other premier division sides had improved as the season progressed, and were quite capable of knocking over the leading trio.
Evidence of this was Island Bay's win over Petone a few weeks back and then Petone's draw with Upper Hutt City.
"What you have now is a situation where about the only incentive for the teams from fourth place back is to knock the top three over, and that means we only have to have an off- day against any of them and we're in trouble," he said.
With that in mind Keinzley is wary of his team's game against Upper Hutt City at Upper Hutt this coming weekend, a game which will incidentally be Wairarapa United 200th competition game since they began 11 years ago.
Keinzley knows their draw with Petone will have given Upper Hutt City a confidence boost and that they will be looking forward with great anticipation to meeting Wairarapa United on their home turf.
"It's the sort of game which spells danger for us and we've got to ensure there is no complacency whatsoever going into it," he said.
The full premier division points table in order of games played, games won, games drawn, games lost, goals for, goals against and total points is:-
Petone 11, 9, 1, 1, 27, 8, 28;
Tawa 11, 8, 2, 1, 22, 10, 26;
Wairarapa United 11, 8, 1, 2, 29, 13, 25;
Island Bay 11, 4, 3, 4, 18, 14, 15; Waterside-Karori 11, 4, 3, 4, 16, 15, 15;
Western Suburbs 11, 4, 1, 6, 21, 18, 13;
Brooklyn N United 11, 3, 4, 4, 5, 13, 13;
Upper Hutt City 11, 2, 1, 8, 10, 23, 7;
Marist 11, 2, 1, 8, 7, 24, 7;
North Wellington 11, 1, 3, 7, 10, 27, 6.