Player/coach Chris Greatholder (left) says the Wanderers' hard work is beginning to materialise on the field now. Photo/Warren Buckland
The match smacks of familiarity but player/coach Chris Greatholder hastens to clarify that the opposition playmakers who robbed them of automatic promotion are no longer in the side and neither is their coach.
"I think last season's last season. They beat us at home and we beat them away and so we lost on the away goals rule," says Greatholder before his Building King Havelock North Wanderers face Integration Works Waterside Karori in a 2.30pm kick off in Wellington today.
The veteran midfielder emphasises the South American nucleus of Karori is gone.
"The three boys who did all the damage last time all left soon after the season finished," he says.
Martin Pereyra Garcia, of Argentina, was Karori coach when they gained promotion over the villagers last September in the home-and-away playoffs matches.
Fellow Argentines co-skipper Leonardo Villa, ex-Hawke's Bay United player Facundo Barbero and Guillermo Migueles called the shots in Spanish, making it difficult for opponents to read their game.
Havelock North are languishing near the bottom of the table - leapfrogging last-placed winless Karori after their emphatic maiden victory (6-2) over Wairarapa United on Wednesday.
If anything, the hosts will have ticked the box against the visitors today as an ideal opportunity to reverse their fortunes.
"With all the twists and turns, we won't take anyone for granted. Likewise, we'll be pretty fearless when we attack the big boys," Greatholder says.
He saw Waterside play Western Suburbs on April 15 but doesn't read too much into it because Karori had a player sent off which had changed the game's impact.
However, he sees some psychological advantages in his troops running on to Karori Park where they won last year.
"I don't care about that personally. At the back of it, it's a cup final for us because if we win, then the gap between us and them will be six points and that's significant in our context."
The Wednesday encounter had turned their usual training into a light session amid a lot of camaraderie.
"We went to Ocean Spa where we did some recovery work and spent some time in the cold and hot pools."
Greatholder says their attitude has been great. The arrival of Solomon Island imports Gagame Feni and Ian Paia was the ideal catalyst to fuel their sense of self-belief in their collective abilities.
"Togetherness has been fully cemented now. It's been a fun week so we're looking forward to a big game."
Things the Wanderers had toiled with have been coming to fruition with a resounding result on the pitch to endorse that.
"There's no reason now why we can't draw a line through our standard performance and standard attitude towards things to get stronger."
While his men missed some big scoring chances, he says they also scored goals "from almost nowhere".
Conversely, he believes his defenders and midfielders also stood up although the arival of the islanders has provided the X factor.
"It's a great of my coaching ability to make sure we're set up in a way where we understand what we do out of possession and defensively what we do when we get the ball so it's a great test for us."
The back on Wednesday were all Hastings products with ages ranging from 20 to 22 who had grown up together.
He was proud of how they had limited Wairarapa to few chances to score.
Greatholder is under no illusions that had Paul Ifill's outfit scored after the sides were locked 2-2 in the second half that his troops' fortitude would have come under intense scrutiny.
"I certainly didn't think we were going to win 6-2 when they pulled it back to 2-2," he says, believing Feni's stunning freekick goal was the clincher.
"It's given us belief and energy. I don't know but I'm really proud of the boys who didn't see the 2-2 as a negative thing because that could have crushed us and we wouldn't have had our first result this season."
He reflects on how they had dominated significant periods of their game in the 5-2 loss to Lower Hutt City last Sunday and finished with a hard-luck story despite hitting the woodwork a few times only to find the opposition scoring against the run of play.
For him, the game is all about finding space so sometimes there's a need to flush the opposition out by playing over the top or through the middle, as opposed to going out wide with blistering pace and agility.
"They changed their shape at halftime and recognised it straight away. They went to 3-5-2, which fundamentally meant our three forwards were man on man so I thought that was a brave move by Phil [Keinzley] but I thought that was better for us than it was for them, to be perfectly honest."
No doubt the strikers were weighing down Wairarapa defenders mentally, thus opening up space and creating time for the midfielders to have shots which didn't find their target.
"Gagame's got the headlines but I'm just as happy with our defensive display and how we're gelling as a unit as well."
As exciting as Feni and Paia are, he feels they also tend to hold up the ball well to buy the Wanderers some time for the midfielders to push up higher.
"So they buy as more than just goals, and that's time, which is also important in a game," he says, revelaing Feni and paia have become stars in their island nation after word got out of their prowess.
Greatholder says goalkeeper Nick Hayward, who had a fine game, had hobbled off the park in the dying minutes after an aerial collision.
Veteran Shaun Peta is likely to start today with Hayward nursing a sprained ankle and bruised shin.
Stefan Kitchin-Nicholson is unavailable so Kurtis Maynie comes into the equation in the only other change.