Wairarapa United are "buzzing" as they prepare to take on Auckland club Bay Olympic in the Chatham Cup semi-final in Auckland on Saturday.
Tuesday night's training session at Howard Booth Park in Carterton revolved around strategies aimed at having the defensive structure fully tuned and coach Phil Keinzley admits to being
hard put to control the enthusiasm of the players.
"Saturday can't come soon enough for them, they just want to get out there and show the big city boys what it's all about."
Keinzley has no fears whatsoever of Wairarapa United being intimidated at the prospect of playing a Bay Olympic side who were runners-up in the Cup last year and had this year's northern league title all parcelled up with three matches still to play.
Keinzley won't name his starting line-up until after another training session tonight.
It is certain though that Matt Borren will be in goal and that Scott Robson, Waisake Sabatu and James Oxtoby will be in the back four, along with either of Pablo Moya or Adam Milne.
Guaranteed places in the midfield are for Pita Rabo, Nathan Cooksley and Carl Shailer and Adam Cowan will be either there or taking up a dual striker role with Seule Soromon. That leaves one other midfield berth to fill and that will be between Dale Higham and Nobuyishi Ishi.
With Bay Olympic in green Wairarapa United will be wearing white shirts with red trimmings and vice versa for the shorts.
With that in mind Keinzley is hopeful that the many Wairarapa United supporters who have signalled their intentions to travel north to watch the action will have either red or white as their predominant colours.
