Bid for premier league status

MINE: Heartland Wairarapa's Thomas Hemi, right, battles for possession with a Hawke's Bay defender in a warm-up match at Memorial Park.PHOTO/FILE

Heartland Wairarapa have an extra incentive to turn on a good show on and off the field when they confront Canterbury United in a national youth league football match at home on Saturday.

Officials from Football New Zealand will be at Memorial Park, Masterton, to see the level of organisation and crowd support, inspect facilities and watch the action and the prospects of Heartland Wairarapa successfully bidding for a place in the national premier summer league.

Beating the highly-rated, but so far disappointing, Canterbury United squad would be the icing on the cake for the Heartland Wairarapa team.

The improvement shown by the club the in opening two rounds of the youth league suggests a win is possible.

In the first round, Heartland Wairarapa competed well against Team Wellington for the first 60 minutes but ran out of steam towards the end and were beaten 4-0.

Last Sunday they travelled to Trafalgar Park in Blenheim and gave Nelson Marlborough Falcons, the fourth-placegetters last year, a decent fight before losing 3-2.

While pleased with the progress made by his largely inexperienced unit, Heartland Wairarapa coach Phil Keinzley knows they will probably have to take a step up if they are to claim the scalp of Canterbury United, a squad desperate to pick up points after being upset by YoungHeart Manawatu in their opening encounter and being held to a draw by Southern United in the second.

"They [Canterbury] will be hurting and they will be going flat out here ... really we couldn't be striking them at a worse time," Keinzley said.

With that in mind Keinzley understands the importance of Heartland Wairarapa lifting their intensity.

Some personnel changes are likely from the 11 that initially took the field for the Blenheim match, both in attack and defence in an attempt to aid that process. "It's one of those situations where we just might have to sacrifice skill for attitude, where we go for players who are prepared to go outside their comfort zone to place greater pressure on the opposition, Keinzley said. "It can be risky but it's the sort of call we might have to make."

Six Wairarapa-based players are in the Heartland Wairarapa squad for Saturday's game: Arnon Tapp, Liam Hare, Josh McMenamin, Kurtis Paine and the Hemi brothers, Thomas and Mark.

The majority of the players are challenging for places in the starting XI.