Wairarapa United blitz second half

Wairarapa United have successfully negotiated the first leg of their Chatham Cup defence.

United defeated Rangers in New Plymouth 7-3 on Monday in a game played in fine conditions and in front of a large, parochial crowd.

But the game wasn't as simple for United as the scoreline might suggest as they trailed 3-1 at the break, but pulled out all the stops in the second half to score no less than six unanswered goals.

United went back to basics in the second half, playing the ball to foot and cutting out the long-ball passes.

Superior fitness also became a factor as the game wore on. The width of the pitch was a bonus for United as it allowed wide players Dale Higham and Adam Cowan space to run at the Rangers' defence.

"Yep, I'm happy now but I was embarrassed by the half-time scoreline," coach Phil Keinzley said after the final whistle.

"Silly errors cost us three soft goals. We'd gone away from the game plan after playing good football for the first 25 minutes."

The 3-1 half-time deficit was wiped out within five minutes of the restart and, from there on, Wairarapa dominated the game completely with what Keinzley described as "the best football I've seen us play".

For United, Seule Soromon netted a hat-trick while man of the match Adam Cowan scored twice and Nathan Cooksley and Paul Ryder also found the back of the net.

The victory extended United's unbeaten run to 11 games, having gone undefeated since the end of last season's Chatham Cup run.