Wairarapa United moved into third place in the Capital premier division soccer competition after their 1-0 win over Brooklyn Northern United at the Colin Pugh Sports Bowl in Masterton on Saturday. The final scoreline was closer than most would have predicted with BNU sitting at the very bottom of the pointstable but it was greeted with satisfaction by the Wairarapa United camp, whose primary objectives were to win the game and keep a clean sheet on the scoreboard. "We had let a few soft goals in recently and so the onus was on keeping them (BNU) scoreless," Wairarapa United manager Phil Keinzley said. "The soundness of the defence was very encouraging?.just what we wanted." Keinzley conceded, however, that the second half goal scored by Pita Rabo was not good value for his team's dominance of the match from a territorial viewpoint. Several other prime scoring chances had been created but a combination of BNU stacking their defence and Wairarapa United lacking finish meant Rabo's goal was the only scoring action in the game. Keinzley said Wairarapa United had suffered in the first half, especially, from being too predicatble in their attacking play but after "getting the message" at the break they had switched the direction of the attack quite effectively in the second spell. In fact, the Rabo goal had come directly from such a switch with fullback Sakeo Valevou the main instigator in that instance. Both Valevou and his fullback partner Petero Dauniseka had big games for Wairarapa United and while goalkeeper Tony Jamieson was called on to make few saves he impressed with the accuracy, length and direction of his clearances.
