Waitakere face familiar foe this weekend

For the third time already this season Waitakere United face Team Wellington in an NZFC fixture brought forward to avoid a clash with the O-League later in the season.



Head Coach Chris Milicich has made two forced changes to his squad with Graham Pearce and Darren Bazeley both unavailable to travel to Wellington for Saturday’s clash. He is otherwise pleased with the settled nature of the squad.



“Personnel wise I don’t see too many changes albeit we lose Darren Bazeley and Graham Pearce, both of whom are unavailable to travel but in Jason Rowley and Paul Seaman we have ready made replacements who have been close to forcing selection anyway.”



Milicich is conscious of the ‘revenge’ factor in the game with Team Wellington still smarting from the pre-Christmas hiding at the hands of his side.



“Revenge is a word that will no doubt be bandied about by the media ahead of this one given it is only a few weeks back that we triumphed 5-1 to burst Wellington’s bubble.



“But we won’t buy into that remain realistic about that match and how quickly things can turn in this league if you are not concentrating, just look at Team Wellington turning that disappointment into an 8-0 win last weekend.”



Home team: Team Wellington

Opponent: Waitakere United
Date: 13th January, 4pm KO

Venue: Newtown Park

Round: Fourteen (brought forward)



Squad of 16 (list in chronological order): 1 Richard Gillespie, 2 Jonathan Perry, 5 Danny Hay (c), 7 Jason Hayne, 8 Commins Menapi, 9 Benjamin Totori, 10 Allan Pearce, 11 Neil Sykes, 13 Daniel Koprivcic, 14 Hoani Edwards, 15 Chris Bale, 16 Neil Emblen, 17 Jake Butler, 20 Jason Rowley, 22 Simon Eaddy, 33 Paul Seaman



Changes from last game

In: Jason Rowley, Paul Seaman

Out: Darren Bazeley, Graham Pearce (both unavailable to travel)

Injuries (type of injury): Shane Pascoe (knee), Mikael Munday (knee) both long term