KEY POINTS:
The Links Ave ground in Mt Maunganui holds memories - good and bad - for Mike Gwyther.
It was there, playing for North Shore United against Tauranga City on April 16 last year that he broke his leg so badly he was in hospital for nearly a week.
His right leg is still held together by pins and nails.
The recovery process was tedious but, back to something close to full fitness and at the same ground a year on, Gwyther scored a timely hat-trick for North Shore against City en route to winning the Northern Premier League 2006 golden boot with 17 goals from 17 games.
That effort and earlier showings - for New Zealand under-20 against Chile in late 2004 and in the Solomon Islands early last year - kept his name in front of the national selectors and led to two appearances off the bench for New Zealand A in Vietnam this month.
"I did all right," says Gwyther. "It wasn't easy. It was hot and we had little time to acclimatise. For a team pretty much chucked together we did okay."
There was a touch of irony in Gwyther's selection for the A side. Assistant coach Paul Probert was the one who had broken Gwyther's leg in THAT tackle.
"There was nothing malicious, it was just one of those tackles," says Gwyther. "When Che Bunce grabbed me and took a look at my leg he knew straight away it was broken and called to the sideline."
He admits being a bit gun shy for the first couple of months on his return.
"Now, I don't think about it."
These days the focus is firmly on the New Zealand Football Championship and winning and holding a place in the Waitakere United starting lineup.
As part of his recovery, Gwyther played a handful of games for Waikato FC in last season's NZFC before returning to Shore for the winter and doing well enough to impress Waitakere coach Steve Cain.
"When I turned up at Waitakere last season during the transfer window, he was honest with me and told me he wouldn't sign me and suggested that I continue to work on my fitness and perhaps play for Waikato. He watched me again during the winter and signed me for this season.
"With the Vietnam tournament coming up, he told me to get that out of the way and then he would look at giving me a start."
That came in last Sunday's away game with YoungHeart Manawatu where Gwyther played the first 70-75 minutes of the 1-0 win which took Waitakere to the top of the table at the expense of their hosts, who lost for the first time this season.
Gwyther first kicked a ball at Northcote United as a 6-year-old and progressed to Glenfield Rovers, Rosmini College and also in the under-16s for United Soccer 1.
His hopes are now focused on the national under-23 squad from whom the team to chase a place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be selected.
Much will depend on his goal-scoring deeds and his progress as national coach Ricki Herbert and others watch from the sideline.
"He has got pace and gets into goal-scoring situations," says Herbert. "He did well enough in Vietnam and has shown he has regained the confidence he might have lost at the time of his injury. He is certainly one of the players we are looking at for the under-23 squad."
With no shortage of strikers in the Waitakere side, Gwyther will be flat out tomorrow against Hawkes Bay United at Trusts Stadium to seize every opportunity and show coaches Cain and Herbert he is worthy of his place at whatever level.
