Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley readily concedes his team's comfortable 3-1 win over Island Bay in their Capital premier division men's soccer match at Island Bay on Saturday caught him by surprise. Keinzley was expecting this to be one of Wairarapa United's most testing assignments of the season, what with IslandBay being widely touted as being amongst the competition favourites. But as it happened Wairarapa United, despite going off the boil at times, were a class above them and their two goal winning margin clearly flattered the losers. "Honestly I would say we probably played at about 80 per cent of what we are capable, yet we were clearly the better team," Keinzley said Wairarapa United scored the only goal of the first half, after outstanding striker Pita Rabo was brought down in the penalty box, and Murray Burling converted the penalty into a 1-0 advantage. It was just after the halftime break that Island Bay drew level, but the last 20 minutes saw Wairarapa United seal the victory with two goals, the first of them to Stanley Waita after good lead-up work by Rabo, and the second to Paolo Frisone who came on late in the game as a substitute for Waita and scored with practically his first touch of the ball.Again it was Rabo who provided the spark for that goal as well The excellence of Rabo in attacking situations was an obvious feature of the game for Wairarapa United. He was a constant threat in spite of the close attentions of the opposition defence. The control and leadership of Murray Burling in the centre of the midfield was another big plus for Wairarapa United, as was the sureness in goal of Tony Jamieson and the defensive skills of Petero Dauniseka and Robbie Bull, the latter coming into the side when James Oxtoby was a late withdrawal because of a work accident. He is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks. Saturday's win rocketed Wairarapa United to the very top of the premier division points table, and their second team also captured the same position in the Capital third division series when they beat Island Bay 3-2. Their player of the match was Clarence Stolt, who was one of the goal scorers.
