Wairarapa United remained at the top of the table in the Capital division one men's soccer competition after their commanding 3-0 win over Wellington United at Carterton on Saturday.
The first 15 minutes of the game saw Wairarapa United struggle to gain any fluency on their attacking play with passes too
often going astray but once Lai Gataurua rocketed the ball into the net for their first goal they were in control.
Gataura's Fijian team-mate Sakeo Valevou scored WairarapaUnited's second goal from a header to make it 2-0 at halftime and their final goal came in the second spell when a shot from Troy Burling richocheted off the posts and Andrew Taylor slotted the ball home.
Coach Phil Keinzley was justifiably pleased with the Wairarapa United effort but was quick to point out that even though they were making improvements game by game they still had to play to their potential over a whole match.
"I would say that we haven't reached that stage for more than 30 minutes in any game so far so there's still a lot of improvement to come," he said.
Keinzley said the fact that with no lights currently at Howard Booth Park the Wairarapa United training sessions were being held on the artificial hockey surface at Clareville and he believes that could be a factor in their slow starts.
"The ball travels really quickly on the artificial turf and it's a whole different saituation on grass," he said. "The movement is slower there and we seem to be taking a while to adjust to it."
Player of the match for Wairarapa United on Saturday was the hard-working Troy Burling and there were strong performances too from Lai Gataurua, Sakeo Valevou, Andrew Taylor, Paul Watkinson and goalkeeper Charles Kendall, who pulled off a couple of five saves.
Wairarapa United will play a double header over Anzac weekend, being away to Seatoun on the Saturday and at home to the other unbeaten division one side, Western Suburbs, on the Monday.
Seatoun is yet to record a victory this season but, traditionally, wins their home games against Wairarapa United and Keinzley is well aware of he dangers of complacency in that particular game. "We have to treat the Saturday game as being every bit as tough as that on Monday otherwise we could find ourselves in trouble," he said.
