A hard act to follow for United

Wairarapa United have a hard act to follow when they meet Miramar Rangers in a Central League football match at Centennial Park, Miramar, tomorrow.
Not only are Wairarapa United aiming for their fourth successive win but they are coming off the back of a performance rated as possibly the best in the club's 15-year history, their 3-2 win over powerful Petone at Hullena Park last weekend.
The one-goal advantage didn't tell the story of Wairarapa United's dominance in that game with two or three other prime scoring opportunities going by the board.
What's more, both Petone's goals came as much through poor positioning by Wairarapa United defenders as good work by their opposition.
A similar effort to that against Petone will take Wairarapa United close again tomorrow but whether it will provide another victory is no certainty.
Miramar Rangers are a very formidable side, as shown by their record which has them sitting second on the Central League table and into the semi-finals of the nation-wide Chatham Cup competition.
It won't help Wairarapa United's cause either that Miramar Rangers struggled to beat Central League cellar dwellers Wellington United by 2-1 last weekend as they will be keen to bounce back with a quality performance.
Particularly with the knowledge that Wairarapa United are running hot and will be no easy beats.
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley says his side will be looking to play a similar style of football that they did against Petone.
There they started strongly and maintained the pressure all the way through the 90 minutes.
"They (Miramar Rangers) are too good a side to expect a win by being defensive, you have to go out there with the idea of scoring more goals than them," Keinzley said.
"But at the same time you have to keep your wits about you on defence too, any lapses there and they'll take you to the cleaners"
The absence of Miriek Tvaroh in midfield because of his one-match suspension through having picked up his fifth yellow card against Petone means the lively Kote Maeno will come into the starting line-up for Wairarapa United. He is likely to be at right half with the impressive Adam Cowan moving from there to central midfield.
Even though battling injury Cowan was perhaps the best of all the Wairarapa United players last weekend, getting through a power of work on defence and also linking cleverly with dangerous strikers Seule Soromon and Campbell Banks on attack.
Pleasing too for Wairarapa United was the return to top form of Nick Roydhouse and Carl Shailer.
Roydhouse made several searching runs and constantly troubled the Petone defence with his speed both on and off the ball while fullback Shailer was cool and calm on defence and quick to counter attack whenever the opportunity arose.
Wairarapa United also had Richard Gillespie to thank for making two or three outstanding saves in goal and for the accuracy and length of his clearing kicks.
He has missed some of Wairarapa United's Saturday games this season because of other commitments but, fortunately, will be on deck tomorrow.