“We’ve called back Jimmy Holden for the rest of the season. He was going to slow down and play in the second division. I got him to play for us against Thistle Youth a few weeks ago and he enjoyed it. He’ll be in the game-day squad.”
Adams is also hoping central midfielders Aaron Graham and Kieran Venema have recovered fully from injury. Both trained this week.
Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United are the holders of the Central Federation Cup. On September 3 last year they beat North End, of Palmerston North, on penalties after the regulation 90 minutes plus 30 minutes of extra time both ended with the score at 3-3.
United were two levels below Federation League side North End and fought back from 2-0 and 3-2 down.
But that two-level difference could not be taken at face value. The previous year, United had won the Pacific Premiership and came down to local football only because they were running short of players prepared to do the travelling required for outside competition. They also had a seasoned squad of players with some epic clashes against local rivals Gisborne Thistle under their belt.
In a football sense, they were battle-hardened. They had also won the Federation Cup before, in 2014, when they beat Napier City Rovers Reserves 6-1 in Napier.
Adams is not getting cocky, though.
“Marist are coached by Brett Angell; he knows how to control a team from the sideline,” Adams said.
“They have a Chatham Cup game at home on Saturday (today) against Central League side North Wellington. That will take something out of them, but they have a league record of six wins from six games, and have scored 19 goals and conceded only two.
“They’re not a side to be taken lightly.”
Local league and Pacific Premiership teams are allowed to enter the Chatham Cup and Federation Cup, as well as local knockout cups. However, Federation League teams must choose between the Chatham Cup and Federation Cup, and are not allowed to enter local knockout cups.
Adams said United would play to their strengths. It would be the “typical United way” — direct football.
“Marist have conceded only two goals this year but I think in the past six years we’ve never scored less than 40 goals in a season.
“We know how to put the ball in the back of the net, and we’ll want to score to put them on the back foot.”
Adams said the outfield squad would be defenders Jonathan Purcell, Kieran Higham, Ben Hansen, Holden, Kaden Manderson and Malcolm Marfell; midfielders Graham, Venema, Olly Purcell (younger brother of Jonathan), Corey Adams and Matt Hills; and strikers Cranswick, Josh and Jacob Adams, and Damon Husband.
Napier Marist coach Brett Angell knows a bit about scoring goals as well as stopping them.
He was converted from a defender to a striker and in 465 games in every league from the English fourth division to the Premier League (a 20-game spell with Everton for one goal) he scored 164 goals.
In all competitions, he scored 202 goals in 546 appearances.
He was in the Professional Footballers Association Third Division Team of the Year in 1990-91, named Southend United Player of the Year in 1991-92, inducted into the Stockport County Hall of Fame in October 2002, and included in the Cheltenham Town Football Club 50 Greats published in November 2006.
