Football: Goals name of game against Karori say Wanderers

There were nail-biting moments for Chris Greatholder last weekend but he believes the Havelock North Wanderers can upset Waterside Karori today. Photo/Warren Buckland

Captain Bjorn Christensen is out and so is assistant coach Bruce Barclay but Havelock North Wanderers are upbeat about overturning the odds of gaining promotion to premier winter league soccer in their catchment area.

"No, he [Barclay] is not cleared, unfortunately, and the report has come through although I strongly wanted to appeal, we've decided against that," player/coach Chris Greatholder says before the 1.30pm kickoff against favourites Waterside Karori in Wellington today in the away and final match between the sides.

Dion Adams will be on the bench for Barclay, who was ordered off the sideline for yelling out at the referee in last Saturday's 2-1 loss at Guthrie Park to not let a howling Karori bench influence his decision in Christensen's impending sending off for collecting his second yellow card.

However, Barclay travelled with the team yesterday to help out but will be a spectator today at Karori Park.

Teenager Kenneth Willox will replace Christensen, who misses the game for a match suspension for two crude tackles, in the engine room.

The visitors will have their work cut out against the Martin Pereyra Garcia-coached hosts who have three Argentines in the starting XI: co-skipper Leonardo Villa, Facundo Barbero and Guillermo Migueles.

Garcia communicates in Spanish from the sidelines with his three compatriots who set the tone for Karori.

"We have a plan, like we did, to try stop them in certain areas and for 20 minutes of the first half, we did get on top of them, but I think for the majority of the game, we did okay," Greatholder says.

However, he feels the plan is simple for the Wanderers - score goals.

"Rather than worry about what they can do to hurt us, we've got to give them something to worry about in terms of stopping us getting back in the tie and hurting them as well."

Havelock have to not only win but also have a better aggregate in away goals against Capital Football League champions Karori who already have one hand on the rung to gaining promotion to the Lotto Central League next winter.

For the Central Federation League champions that also means creating more opportunities than they did here in last Saturday's loss.

"The execution shows we need to work on our technique and composure. You know, it's a big occasion and for some of these lads, they are wiser for it now."

Greatholder feels his troops have the propensity to get better quickly after working hard during the work.

"We're very optimistic because we know we have an opportunity although we would have liked to have had a better opportunity so we're determined to go down to give it our best shot."

Even though they are underdogs and Karori will wear the favourites tag the Wanderers believe they still have what it takes to create upsets.

HAVELOCK NORTH WANDERERS: 1 Shaun Peta (GK), 2 Chris Greatholder, 3 Andrew Bowden, 4 Liam Carrington, 5 Campbell Whitworth, 6 Tyler Anstis, 7 James Barclay, 8 Ethan Dent (vc), 9 Jared Bloor, 10 Ben Foxall, 12 Sam Waddington, 13 Shannon Fowler, 14 Kenneth Willox, 15 Stefan Kitching-Nicholson, 16 Jackson Ralph, 17 Liam Shackleton, 18 Frederic Haidekker (RGK).

Coach: Chris Greatholder.
Ast coach: Dion Adams.
Manager: Tony Simons.

WATERSIDE KARORI: 1 Sam Martin (GK), 2 Tom Withnall, 3 Dominic McCann, 4 Ethan Cain, 5 Guillermo Migueles, 6 Caleb Hilbron, 7 Leonardo Villa (co-c), 8 John Sutherland (co-c), 9 Facundo Barbero, 10 Jack Haggerty, 11 Luc Saker, 12 William Stuart, 13 Lewis Francis, 14 Tor Davenport Peterson, 15 James Knott, 16 Isaac Harper, 17 Patrick Tobin, 18 Olivier Cassidy, 19 Brennan Patchell, 20 Sam Adams, 21 Oliver Fletcher, 22 Connor Stairs, 23 Cole Hosking-Berge, 24 Jackson Straugheir, Gabe Cooper (RGK).

Coach: Martin Pereyra Garcia.
Ast coach: Callum Holmes.