Wairarapa United enhanced their prospects of finishing second in the Capital Soccer premier division competition when they beat Lower Hutt City 4-2 at Lower Hutt on Saturday. The win took Wairarapa United to fifth position on the points table and while most other teams will play their last games next weekendWairarapa United still have three matches to complete. Win all three and second is a definite possibility. Saturday's victory was a hard-fought affair with Wairarapa United dominating the first five minutes to such an extent that about the first time Lower Hutt touched the ball was when their 'keeper picked a shot from Pita Rabo out of the back of the net. For the remainder of the first half though Lower Hutt, which had gone six matches without defeat, applied constant pressure on the Wairarapa United defences with a Costa Rican "import" making several penetrative runs. However, Wairarapa United kept their goal intact and went to the halftime break still 1-0 ahead. The second half saw Wairarapa United benefit from a change to a 3-5-2 format and they added three goals to their tally, all of them to Rabo, while conceding two. It was Sakeo Valevou who provided the through pass to Rabo for the first of these Wairarapa United goals and the second came after a similarly well-judged pass from Merick Tvaroh. The third was a piece of Rabo magic. He robbed a Lower Hutt defender off the ball and slotted it into the net. Both Rabo and his fellow striker Andy Robertson made a big impression on the game with their high workrates and Guiseppe Cugliari made such a decent job of marking the Costa Rican in the second half that he was forced to leave the field.
