However, the proposal came at short notice and New Plymouth were unable to get a team to Gisborne in the time available.
Elsewhere, Palmerston North Marist could not play Havelock North because Marist were playing in the cup, but Red Sox Manawatu and Wanganui Athletic played a scoreless draw.
This weekend, the draw is the same as it was for June 24/25. For Red Sox and Wanganui, it will be their third clash. But the other two pairings will be meeting for just the second time. To give them all a chance at the same number of points, Central Football has decided that the Thistle-New Plymouth and Marist-Havelock games will be worth six points each, and that the goals scored by each team in the two six-point games will be doubled to give them an extra game’s worth of goal difference.
In the meantime, the plan for a three-round league has been abandoned. During August a top-four playoff series will be held to find the overall winning team to meet the Capital Federation competition winners.
Hastings said it was unfortunate that the scheduling problems were not sorted out before the season started.
The Capital Football league has 10 teams; the Central Football competition, seven.
“I’ve never gone into a game that’s been worth six points,” Hastings said.
“If we win, fantastic, and if Havelock lose, even better.”
Thistle are fourth, on 15 points, behind New Plymouth (19pts), Wanganui (20) and Havelock (25). After tomorrow, Thistle and New Plymouth will be deemed to have played 11 games, and Wanganui and Havelock, 12. But Wanganui are playing for just three points tomorrow, whereas the others are playing for six.
The risks that come with a Thistle loss are comparable to the rewards for a win.
“If we lose to New Plymouth and Havelock beat Palmerston North Marist, we would be 16 points behind Havelock,” Hastings said.
“If we lose and Havelock lose, we would be a point behind Marist, who are currently on 10 points.
“And we don’t play Marist again in the regular season, so we’d be relying on other teams beating them for us to get above them.”
Two points for a draw would at least keep Palmerston North Marist at bay.
The game at Childers Road Reserve tomorrow is like any other between title-chasing teams, in that both sides will be desperately keen not to lose.
But the extra points on offer should add an edge. Stopping goals will not be enough for either team. They will want to score them as well. And how they go about that should be exciting to watch.
Thistle will be without Liam Ryan, who has a one-game suspension for his sending-off last Saturday.
Defenders Ander Batarrita and Ryan McMenamin are under injury clouds, with Hastings judging Batarrita as being slightly more likely to be fit to play.
Nick Land, Malcolm Marfell, Max Mika, Matt McVey, Olly Tilley, David Barker and Agustin Lastagaray are all available again.
From last week’s line-up against Wanganui, goalkeeper Ryan Majstrovic, defenders Mal Scammell and David Salmon, and attackers Kieran Ryan, Josh Harris and Corey Adams are all likely to be in the mix. Hastings, himself, played 90 minutes in midfield, and youngsters Ian Cutler and PJ Goodlett came on late as Thistle tried to claw back the deficit.
One key figure, skipper Kieran Venema, will be on the bench as he is out of town till close to kick-off tomorrow.
Hastings says the players at his disposal can do the job, but he is wary of New Plymouth.
“They are very dangerous going forward. They have a link with Team Taranaki in the Central League and can draw players from them.
“The last time we played New Plymouth, they had a couple of imports — an American and an Englishman.
“We need to be defensively disciplined, but this is also an opportunity to show what we can do on attack. If we all do our individual roles, we’ll be all right.”
