Billy Scott. PHOTO/John Cowpland/Photosport
PICKING UP a yardstick to measure success in sport is commendable but there's a fine line in not treating it as a rod to repeatedly beat oneself up with in gauging a sense of self-worth.
Hawke's Bay United have had ample feedback on what is required to get to the business end of the ASB Premiership playoffs against the powerhouses in the national football league this summer.
It's now time for the Brett Angell-coached side to do the donkey work.
"Team Wellington and Auckland City are the so-called better teams so that's why I decided to play in the national league," versatile player Billy Scott says before the Bay United host the Wanderers Soccer Club in Napier tomorrow.
It's just a point between the fourth rung and the sixth on the premiership ladder but the significance of that point isn't lost on Scott.
The 23-year-old from Nelson realises three points are imperative when the dust settles after the 2pm kick off at the Bluewater Stadium, Park Island, against the Wanderers who are perched in fourth place on 13 points.
Bay United are sixth, albeit on equal 12 points with Wellington Phoenix Reserves who boast a healthier goal difference.
Putting a tick in the must-win box against the Wanderers would have been a premeditated given for a good part of the season but he is the first to accept the visitors have eked out a couple of good wins post-Christmas.
His fellow Western Suburbs teammate and Wanderers striker, Noah Billingsley, who was "the star" in the Wellington side's 7-1 thumping of Miramar Rangers in the Lotto Central League last winter.
"Noah scored two goals and set up four others," says Scott, who as captain scored the opening goal with Suburbs finishing second in the league to Miramar.
Due to work commitments in Wellington, where he is a sales rep for an electrical wholesaler in Porirua, Scott didn't play in the third-round 2-1 away win over Wanderers at Michael's Avenue Reserve where Viktor Lekaj found the net and Wanderers conceded an own goal on November 16.
However, Scott did play against the Wanderers pre-season.
"We'll definitely be the better team at the weekend but everyone's going to have to turn up at the park."
The Ross Haviland-captained Bay United have had their scratchy moments in finding the net but they are equally susceptible in conceding goals to make things hard for themselves.
"We're building as a team and each week we're getting better," he says of a team Angell assembled after a lion's share of players with Bay ties declined to carry on with the franchise which didn't reappoint last summer's coach, Chris Greatholder.
Scott travels to train Thursdays and Fridays with the squad and spends Saturdays doing gym and pool sessions before match days.
Former Bay United midfielder and good mate Tom Biss, who plays for Waitakere United, recommended him to Angell.
After trial matches against WaiBOP United and Auckland City the coach liked what he saw of the former Nelson Suburbs player.
A good first half in Bay United's opening game but in the second spell he didn't measure up.
Scott came off the bench to impress on Angell his ability.
Three rounds ago he began starting again as rightback in the away 1-1 draw against Canterbury United, the 4-1 slump to Club World upstarts Auckland at home and the 1-0 away loss to Team Wellington.
"Auckland outplayed us. We gave away the ball too easily and then spent too much time trying to get it back."
Against O-League campaigners Wellington they were "unlucky", conceding a soft goal.
On the flip side, Scott reckons Bay United have learned heaps from the two games and know what to do against the two sides should they make the playoffs.
He is happy to play in any position on the field bar goalkeeper.
"As a kid, my old man [Nelson landscape gardener Lindsay] made us take turns in the under-11 team to play keeper.
"I played half a game as keeper and just hated it," he says, finding it frustrating that he couldn't go up the park to help his teammates under duress at the coal face.
His father, who played midfielder for the Nelson United of old in the now defunct National League, remains his biggest influence as age-group coach.
His brothers, Sean, 18, and Joey, 15, play rugby.
The older one is a semi-professional player with RC Hookers in The Netherlands while the younger one is an age-group rep at Nelson Boys' College.
"My dad changed to rugby when he was 30," says Scott, who stuck with the beautiful game because he had mates playing alongside him.
Those friends went through myriad age-group teams before they went to university.
He and another mate ended up at Nelson Suburbs where in the second season the coach shifted him from centre-mid to rightback as a "better fit" for the team.
With the licence to be a "modern back", Scott didn't have any qualms as he could overlap to a winger's foraging role.
Nelson Bays compete in the Mainland League against Christchurch teams but a preseason invite to the capital city saw him alter his route.
"Shane Rufer was the Western Suburbs coach and Nelson Suburbs beat them 4-0 so he asked me to play for them," says Scott who has assumed the mantle of captaincy with Western Suburbs for the past three years.
Last summer's Bay United teenage striker, Angus Kilkolly, of Hastings, is in the playing squad and it'll be the first time he'll grace Bluewater Stadium as a visitor.
The former Hastings Boys' High School pupil, who played for Bluewater Napier City Rovers in the Central League football competition last winter, didn't play in the round-three game against Bay United because of injury.
The Darren Bazeley-coached Wanderers will be out to ensure they keep a winning habit after two consecutive victories and a draw when play resumed after the New year break, as opposed to the win-less hosts.
MATCH DETAILS
WHO: Hawke's Bay United v Wanderers Soccer Club.
WHAT: ASB Premiership.
WHEN: Tomorrow, 2pm kick off.
WHERE: Park Island, Napier.
HAWKE'S BAY UTD: 1 Joshua Hill (GK), 2 Wade Randle, 4 Ross Haviland (c), 5 Finlay Milne, 6 Ryan Tinsley, 7 Troy Pennycooke-Morgan, 8 Alex Palezevic, 9 Sean Lovemore, 10 Viktor Lekaj, 11 Mario Alberto Barcia, 12 Saul Halpin, 16 Leon Birnie, 19 Facundo Barbero, 21 Sean Liddicoat, 22 Billy Scott, 24 Fane Morgan, 26 Kyle Baxter (RGK).
Coach: Brett Angell.
Ast coach: Leon Birnie.
WANDERERS SC: 1 Michael Woud (GK), 2 Brock Messenger, 3 Deklan Wynne, 4 Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, 5 Adam Mitchell (c), 6 Sam Brotherton, 7 Regont Murati, 8 Mario Ilich, 9 Angus Kilkolly, 10 Moses Dyer, 11 Finn Cochrane, 12 Damian Hirst, 14 Andre de Jong, 18 Clayton Lewis, 20 Noah Billingsley.
Coach: Darren Bazeley.
OTHER GAMES
Rd 12 today:
Canterbury United v Auckland City FC, 2pm at ASB Football Park, Christchurch.
WaiBOP United v Team Wellington, 3pm at John Kerkhof Park, Cambridge.
Tomorrow:
Waitakere United v Southern United, 1pm at Fred Taylor Park, Auckland.
GOLDEN BOOT
5 goals: Aaron Clapham (Canterbury Utd), Joel Stevens (Wellington Phoenix), Michael Gwyther (Team Wellington), Nathaniel Hailemariam (Wellington Phoenix), Ryan Tinsley (Hawke's Bay United).
STANDINGS
P W D L GD PTS
Wellington 10 7 2 1 12 23
Auckland 9 7 0 2 7 21
Canterbury 9 4 2 3 4 14
Wanderers 11 4 1 6 -4 13
Phoenix 10 4 0 6 1 12
HB Utd 10 3 3 4 -3 12
Waitakere 9 3 2 4 -3 11
WaiBOP Utd 9 3 1 5 -5 10
Southern Utd 9 2 1 6 -9 7
Before today's games.
Painful defeat for Napier City Rovers puts heat on National League qualification hopes.