Wairarapa farewell Keinzley with win

Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley Wairarapa United ended their Central League season on a high note with a 4-2 win over Western Suburbs at Hullena Park on Saturday, and gave long-serving coach Phil Keinzley the perfect farewell as a result.
After 22 continuous years of coaching football from club through to representative levels, Keinzley is taking a well-deserved break and he bows out with the knowledge Wairarapa United have come a creditable third in one of the country's toughest competitions.
Not that Keinzley is blowing his own trumpet. Rather he is "peeved off" that a side which he rates as the best he has ever coached didn't finish two places higher.
"I guess I'll always think there was unfinished business," Keinzley admitted. "It's frustrating to know that when we were at full strength we were capable of beating anyone but then again third isn't bad, is it?"
Saturday's match saw United battling hard throughout the first half to get any sort of ascendancy over a Western Suburbs side they had only ever beaten once before.
In fact, Porirua-based Suburbs could claim to have a slight advantage in territory and possession, although the two teams were level 1-1 at the break.
The second half was, however, a somewhat different story, with Wairarapa upping the ante and controlling all aspects of play as a consequence. They added three goals to their tally before Western Suburbs got a second late in the game after Wairarapa United were playing with 10 men after midfielder Adam Cowan was sent off.
Keinzley was typically forthright about that decision, saying Cowan was the victim of poor refereeing. "Honestly it was a shocker and coming after he [Cowan] had been illegally brought down at least twice earlier without penalty, made it even worse," he said. "It was one of those games, though, we got off lightly a few times too!"
The experiment of moving striker Seule Soromon into the right half berth worked wonders for Wairarapa United. Not only did it guarantee the home team would get more width into their attacking play, it also forced Western Suburbs to have at least two defenders marking him.
Midfielders Cowan, Miroslav Tvaroh and George Barbarouses all had big games for Wairarapa too, with Tvaroh being named player of the match after a performance which saw him linking well on attack and being his usual aggressive self on defence.
Campbell Banks scored two of the United goals with others coming from Rabo and Barbarouses.
The Central League points table is: Olympic 46, Miramar Rangers 39, Wairarapa 34, Petone 26, Lower Hutt City 23, Western Suburbs 22, Napier City Rovers 21, Tawa 17, PN Marist 16, Taranaki 9.
Douglas Villa upset second-placed Waikanae in their Capital third division match, winning 3-2, while in the Capital fourth division the Wairarapa seconds drew 2-2 with Naenae.