Wairarapa United have a had a late reprieve and will be playing at the national satellite under-19 men's soccer tournament in Napier over Labour weekend after all. They received notice of the change of heart from organisers, Napier City Rovers, about midway through their final Ivan England Trophy B section competitionmatch against Wainuiomata at Howard Booth Park, Carterton on Saturday. Wairarapa United had earlier been told their entry for the Napier event had not been accepted, ostensibly because some teams had to be balloted out and last year's Wairarapa side had failed to win a game there. It was a decision which miffed current Wairarapa United management because their 2007 team had yet to taste defeat at the time their entry was turned down, a situation they maintained with their 4-1 beating of Wainuiomata in the last of their section games. Coach Phil Keinzley was "delighted" with the news that Wairarapa United would be contesting the nationals although he conceded it was very probably largely due to one of the teams originally accepted pulling out. "We did make them aware of our record though and that probably had a part to play as well," he said. Keinzley was impressed with his team's decisive win over Wainuiomata as because of a clash with local league fixtures they were without their Rathkeale College players until midway through the game. And also two players, Thomas Hemi and Ryan Athow, were battling sickness. "We had just the 11 players for the first half so I was really pleased with the character they showed," he said. "They (Wainuiomata) played some good soccer and we did well to beat them so comfortably in the end." Named as player of the match for Wairarapa United was Aaron Spierling while others to shine were Thomas Hemi and Anton Ross, who scored two of his team's goals. Ryan Athow and Yuseke Manaeo also netted. Wairarapa United finished as clear cut section champions and will now play a promotion-relegation match with the bottom-placed premier division side in about a fortnight's time, probably at Masterton's Hullena Park.
