If they draw with or defeat City Rovers tomorrow, they will defend the cup for the last time this season against Taradale on September 5. United’s last game of the season will be the postponed June 20 fixture against Gisborne Thistle, now set for September 12, but that is Thistle’s home game, so the cup will not be up for grabs.
United coach Corey Adams is proud of his team’s Challenge Cup record. He has coached United’s Pacific Premiership side since they joined the league in 2018.
He says United’s 5-0 loss to Napier Marist Seconds in their first home game in the league — on April 28, 2018 — is so far the only home defeat United have suffered in nearly three years of premiership play.
Their home form is at odds with their away form . . . they have lost their last four away games.
Heavy Equipment Services Gisborne United last week missed the qualities that sweeper Kieran Higham and midfielder Jarom Brouwer bring to the side. They will miss them again tomorrow, as Higham is still on a holiday arranged before Covid-19 struck, and Brouwer is training for the police.
Attacking midfielder Josh Harris has a broken nose — delivered by an elbow in the loss to Maycenvale last week — to go with a niggling groin injury. Adams will wait to see how Harris feels closer to kick-off before deciding whether to play him.
Otherwise, Adams has largely the same squad available as he had last week, and after training last night he was still mulling over the possible combinations.
However he decides to arrange his forces, he will bank on his key players leading the way, with probably some back-up from the Eastern League 1 side playing the curtain-raiser.
Thistle coach Garrett Blair says his team’s match against Port Hill at Napier’s Marewa Park at 3pm can make or break the team’s push for Pacific Premiership honours.
Gisborne Vehicle Testing Thistle lie second, six points behind Port Hill but with a game in hand. With three points for a win and one for a draw, victory tomorrow would put Thistle in a position to take advantage of any slip-up by the league leaders.
Port Hill swarmed all over Thistle when they beat them 2-0 on July 4 at Childers Road Reserve.
“Last time we didn’t know what to expect,” Blair said.
“We’ve had time to reflect on that game, and we know where their strengths and weaknesses are.
“We have a couple of new players who inject something different into the squad. It’s a matter of using them in the best positions.
“I’m excited. The players are up for it. Training this week has been really intense. They all want to be on that bus.
“It’s a make-or-break game for us. If we lose, it would take a miracle for us to win that league. But if we win, it sets us on a different path.
“We’re in second place, and we’ve a lot more work to do, but we can also take the mindset that we have nothing to lose.”
The 7-0 win against Napier Marist Seconds last week — albeit against younger opposition — was a real team performance, Blair said.
Training this week was about refining everything.
“We are going in as probably the underdogs,” he said.
“This game, for all intents and purposes, will be like a cup final. That’s the type of mentality we will bring to the game.”
The club was putting on a bus for supporters, and the Argentinian contingent would be there with their drums (upturned plastic buckets).
Thistle have several Argentinian players in their squad — defender/midfielder Ema Martos, midfielder Agustin Ventre, left-winger Justo Rodriguez and reserve goalkeeper Gabrile Garnica among them.
Their compatriots, most of whom live at the Flying Nun Backpackers while they work in the horticultural industry on the Poverty Bay Flats, have become a feature of Thistle’s games in Gisborne.
Their most ambitious undertaking so far? Starting a dozen-strong Mexican wave in a socially distanced grandstand of 50 spectators at Childers Road Reserve. Let’s see how they do at Marewa Park.
