KEY POINTS:
Waitakere and Wellington cross swords for the third time this season in the New Zealand Football Championship with bragging rights at stake for both sides.
Sunday's round-14 match in Wellington, brought forward to avoid a clash with the O-League later in the season, offers both the chance to win the "rubber".
The match pits second-placed Waitakere against third-placed Wellington in a match crucial to both sides' minor premiership hopes.
Wellington beat Waitakere in the first round in November but the Aucklanders routed the Wellington 5-1 in their return match.
Waitakere head coach Chris Milicich is conscious of the revenge factor with the capital side still smarting from the pre-Christmas hiding.
" Revenge is a word that will no doubt be bandied about by the media ahead of this one given it is only a few weeks back that we triumphed 5-1 to burst Wellington's bubble," Milicich said.
Waitakere come off a workmanlike 2-0 win over Waikato while Wellington are bubbling after a record-equalling 8-0 humbling of Manawatu in the previous round.
Milicich has made two forced changes to his squad, Jason Rowley and Paul Seaman replacing Graham Pearce and Darren Bazeley, both unavailable.
Wellington welcome back Raf De Gregorio and Brazilian Caue Benicio who missed the game against Manawatu.
Christchurch United, whose 0-2 loss to Otago last week left them anchoring the championship table, take on leaders Auckland at home, also on Sunday, but will be without experienced playmakers Stuart Kelly and Blair Scoullar who have left the team.
Despite missing Joel Mathews and Greg Uhlmann, automatically suspended after seeing red against Manawatu, Auckland look to have too much firepower for Christchurch to handle.
This round-20 match was also brought forward to avoid a clash with O-League scheduling.
- NZPA
