The Gorge of uncertainty

PN Marist v Rovers

Rd 4, Chatham Cup

Skoglund Park

MENTION Manawatu in this neck of the woods and anyone worth anything in sport will prescribe a healthy dose of caution.

That is simply because the inhabitants on the other side of the Gorge invariably assume the mantle of underdogs, even though numerous factors may suggest otherwise.

Rugby, soccer, cricket, basketball, golf, bowls, you name it, from Hawke's Bay can recall countless tales of upset anywhere from school level competition to elite adult grades in attesting to that theory.

Consequently when Bluewater Napier City Rovers kick off away at 2pm against Palmerston North Marist today in the fourth round of the Chatham Cup knockout soccer match at Skoglund Park, the visitors will do anything to shrug off any preconceived notions of wearing a favourites tag around their necks.

That is despite inequalities resulting from the fact that the Grant Hastings-coached Rovers are in the premier winter competition, the Central League, while the hosts are in a competition a tier below, the Central Federation League, albeit as leaders who have aspirations to gain promotion next year.

"They put three goals past Tawa and they have only been beaten once," Hastings is quick to point out after the Simon Lees-coached Marist beat the last-placed Central League side from Wellington in round three but have lost one game to fellow Fed League campaigners Your Solutions Taradale AFC in a non-cup match.

Hastings hastens to add it is the home turf of Marist who are celebrating their club day.

Then there's a crop of soccer-savvy players such as former YoungHeart Manawatu striker Thomas Mosquera and Tyson Bryant at the coalface as well as the dexterity of Scott Hales.

The incentive for the winners is to proceed to the cup quarterfinals late next month, which will be the first stage of national matches.

Add to that the circumstances surrounding today's game after New Zealand Football disqualified Wairarapa United, who beat Rovers 2-1 at Park Island on June 16, for fielding an ineligible player, Brian Kaltack.

Wairarapa coach Phil Keinzley has indicated they will appeal NZ Football's decision within the seven-day window but have yet to lodge it.

According to NZ Football competitions manager Chris Kemp, he had received a letter from the club indicating its intention to lodge an appeal.

"It outlines who is acting on behalf of Wairarapa to help them with the appeal process," Kemp said yesterday.

Hastings asks: "It's not been a typical preparation for us so are we the favourites?"

Regardless of what happens in the boardroom, this game will go down in Chatham Cup history as an aberration.

When is a cup game not a game?

It seems the day Wairarapa United held NZ Football at ransom with an appeal in the face of overwhelming evidence they had applied to reclassify a Vanuatu international who hadn't lived in New Zealand for 12 continuous months.

In the highly unlikely case that Wairarapa's counter appeal succeeds, today's game will be annulled so Palmy Marist will host the Masterton-based team at a revised date.

Hastings sees it in a similar vein to, idomatically speaking, better than to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

It's que sera sera if they lose the game in the boardroom in a battle that will have caught the interest of every club who will take extra care in fielding "guest" and "reclassified" players.

For now he prefers to focus on today's game.

"There's plenty riding on it. We respect everyone but we fear no one," Hastings says of his Central League defending champions under assistant coach/captain Bill Robertson on the field.

If there's a chink the Blues' armour it was exposed against Wellington Olympic in their league loss at Bluewater Stadium last Sunday. The visitors were able to put passes across the face of the goalmouth with relative ease.

"They are quality defenders so it's a mind-set thing," he says, impressing four-time cup holders Rovers have boasted the best defence in Central League for the past two seasons.

"This season we've let ourselves down so we have been talking about our mind set."

The only likely change in the starting XI will be the return of veteran defender David Gearey for young Scott Henderson at rightback.

Guest player Ezequiel Dondiz, of Argentina, is playing his last game before he jets off to Cancun, Mexico, to fulfil a long-term plan of a family holiday.

The 22-year-old midfielder, dubbed "Rats", has played striker for 18 years in his country. He has been a handful for oppositions here, darting around like a fox terrier, nipping at defenders' legs to yield penalty and freekicks.

Hastings says when fellow centre-mid Cole Peverley doesn't push up then Dondiz has had the licence to roam, which was about 75 per cent of the times in games.

Dondiz says: "If the team's still in the cup, I'll be coming back."

Effectively the Argentine will miss the quarter-finals late next month because he'll spend the entire month in Mexico.

He intends to return to New Zealand, where he has a visa for until the end of the year, before travelling to Australia and Southeast Asia.

"If I get the call for Hawke's Bay United then I'll really think about it because it would be awesome to play here after playing for the Rovers."

Dondiz has thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Rovers, from training with the boys to socialising with affable club members after matches.

He echoes Hastings' sentiments that had the Blues found the net more often they would be in a better position in the league, too.

"It's not about playing well but about scoring goals.

"We haven't played badly but sometimes it's about winning ugly, especially in the Chatham Cup," says the law student from Buenos Aires who arrived in April after travelling with a group of Argentinian friends to New Zealand.

Lees told NZ Football the end goal has kept his side focused despite the potential for disruption.

"The distraction was a genuine concern for us and naturally we would have preferred not to have the drama around Wairarapa and been able to plan sooner," he says. "But we have managed to put that to one side, we've prepared extremely well and we know that if we play to our ability we're good enough to beat anyone."

The Rovers will be their toughest test yet. Marist sit six points clear at the top of the Lotto Federation League.

The halcyon days of a Chatham Cup semifinal in 2004 and a painful 2005 final exit are proud memories for what Lees describes as "a small club in the scheme of things" and he says it is only recently that cup fever has noticeably taken hold again.

"Players had half joked about 'the magic of the cup' but it has now become a bit of a catch-cry for them," he says.