Wairarapa face strong challenge from United

Wairarapa United will get no favours from Wellington United in their Central League football match at Howard Booth Park, Carterton, tomorrow.

Few pundits would have put Wellington United among the likely front-runners at the start of the 2012 season but they sit second equal on the points table, four points behind Wairarapa United, and are through to the second round of the Chatham Cup.

So impressive is their form, in fact, that Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley travelled to Wellington last weekend to watch them in action and he was impressed with their stickability in a match where they struggled to get the ball into the back of the net.

"It wasn't a great game but they (Wellington United) kept battling away until the point where they finally got the breaks they needed and that sort of resolve can take any team a long way," Keinzley said. "We can't afford to under-estimate them."

At the time these notes were penned, Keinzley was still undecided as to the make-up of his starting line-up with the availability for the first time of Team Wellington recruit Darren Cheriton doing nothing but complicate matters.

He is a talented midfielder but there is such keen competition for places, he could find himself on the reserve bench.