Despite the sun returning and rain departing, surface flooding continued to dictate play.
While the Rovers lost three points, the purists must argue it's better to lose a game than an entire season. The price of losing isn't that costly when one considers how much the team would prosper if they adhered to a short passing, moving possession style of play with an eye to the future, especially with the injection of young blood in the squad.
"Today was more about the result than my goals, really," lamented Kilkolly who bagged two hattricks in a space of four days during the Easter weekend after the Rovers beat Palmerston North Marist 4-2 away on Good Friday.
The unstoppable striker, who turns 21 today, said it was nice to bag three but to concede four was frustrating due to the way the pitch had evolved after the downpour.
Kilkolly said the rain had disrupted the Rovers' compact game but felt Wairarapa hadn't adopted a similar philosophy. Instead, with the short-sharp saturation the vistors had found more traction with their "direct" approach.
"The way the pitch turned probably helped them a little more, to be fair, because we had to change the way we played but they didn't have to."
Kilkolly said it was the Josh Stevenson-captained Blues who had tried to switch style in counterattacks and had scored three goals but not the result.
"It's your job as striker to score goals so I'm trying to contribute as much as I can," said the Hawke's Bay United player who felt the Napier club was in the throes of rebuilding with younger players on a limited budget compared with other cash-rich counterparts around the country.
Kikolly was among those surprised to see veteran Chris McIvor turn up on Friday, in more than a decade. Recalled Stu Wilson also started yesterday.
Ifill said when they arrived they were aware the Rovers were missing captain/defender Fergus Neil, defensive midfielder James Hoyle and midfielder Matt Bruin because of holiday commitments so a degree of complacency might have kicked in.
"When we got behind, it gave us a wake-up call so we went into halftime to look at what we could do to change things around," the former England-born Wellington Phoenix player said, describing the second half as "horrible".
"It was one of those games we could have easily lost so we'll take the valuable three points in the big scheme of things."
Ifill, who scored the 1-1 equaliser in the 50th minute, said it was no secret that in the second spell Wairarapa had to employed a more kick-and-chase mentality.
"We took our chances because some of the ball in the second half was way better than the first," he said, saluting Seule Soroman for lifting his game as well.
Striker Sam Mason-Smith, he said, was carrying on from a bumper summer to show what he was capable of.
However, the green brigade went up 2-1 from a Mason-Smith header in the 67th minute to beat goalkeeper Joshua Hill in front of the goalmouth from a speculator cross.
But it was the Bluewater Stadium faithful who were left cheering and high-fiving three minutes later when Wilson made a deft cross from the right flank into the face of the goalmouth where Kilkolly skilfully snuck in front of his defender to head the ball past Turipa to level terms at 2-all.
But that was short-lived when Ifill returned the favour to Alex Ridsdale who received the ball from him on the left flank to drill it into the net for a 3-2 lead in the 77th minute.
Two minutes later, the writing was on the wall when Mason-Smith headed in another ball which clipped the upright and rolled into the net to extend the lead to 4-2.
Kilkolly didn't despair, completing his hattrick from 25m out. The rampant striker curled the ball into the roof of the net, past diving Wairarapa keeper Coey Tupira to narrow the margin to 4-3 in the 85th minute.
The Blues host Wellington United in a 2pm kick off this Sunday.
