When? 14 November, 2 pm kick off

Where? Fraser Park, Lower Hutt

What happened last time the two sides met?

In the first #WelClasico of the 2019/20 season, Wellington Phoenix Reserves fought back from a 2-0 deficit at half time (courtesy of goals from Team Wellington’s Oliver Bassett and Hamish Watson), thanks to a second half double from Ben Waine. The return leg saw men’s domestic player of the year Jack-henry Sinclair net a last minute (90+6’ to be precise) winner from the penalty spot for Team Wellington.

What they say

Paul Temple, Wellington Phoenix Reserves head coach:

“WelClasico’s always a real tough fixture in the calendar. It’s Scott Hales’ second year at Team Wellington now, so you're expecting them to be tactically really well organized. They've got very good players, they're always in the top one or two in the league, so it's a really tough start for us. But it’s one that will get the fixture, I guess, fully in the minds of the local people. And hopefully we can get lot of people down watching the game, big crowd and great way to start the league. It’s a good chance for our young players to make a statement early.”

Scott Hales, Team Wellington head coach:
“The squad has mostly been retained, which is really positive for the club. And then the then the new players coming in are majority local players from Wellington as well. Eight in the Central League regionally – Miramar obviously had a stellar year in the Central League, so it's no surprise that there's a there's a core of the new players that have come from Miramar. And we've picked up under 20 New Zealand hopeful Haris Zeb from Canterbury United last season but went to two Eastern Suburbs in the winter to get himself seen, but obviously that season was abruptly caught short as well.

“I'm expecting more of an experienced approach to the game than what we what we showed in pre-season games. That's just part and parcel of having pre-season games where everyone's trying to impress. You're not solely focused more on them individually rather than that collective.

"Now that there’s three points up for grabs you know even more at war with the opposition, and I expect to see a calmer, more calculated approach to the fixture rather than what we saw in pre-season. So I expect to see a normal game with three points at stake at the end of what we've come to know about Team Wellington over the past four or five years, when the club's been successful.”

Squads as at Friday 13 November

Wellington Phoenix Reserves

1 Alexander (Alex) PAULSEN (GK 2 Alexander (Alex) CLAYTON; 4 Kurtis MOGG (C); 6 Adam HILLIS; 7 Luis TOOMEY; 8 Henry HAMILTON; 9 Riley BIDOIS; 10 Benjamin OLD; 11 Thomas RAIMBAULT; 13 Jaylen RODWELL; 18 Oliver VAN RIJSSEL; 20 Kees SIMS (GK); 3 Harry BARK; 5 Finn SURMAN; 14 Oskar VAN HATTUM; 19 George OTT

Team Wellington

1 Scott BASALAJ (GK) (C); 2 Justin GULLEY; 4 Taylor SCHRIJVERS; 7 João (Vitor) ROCHA DE CARVALHO MOREIRA; 9 Hamish WATSON; 11 Mario Alberto BARCIA; 12 Andrew BEVIN; 14 Jack-henry SINCLAIR; 16 Benjamin MATA; 17 Alexander PALEZEVIC; 23 Rory MCKEOWN; 22 Keegan SMITH (GK); 3 Aaron SPAIN; 6 Scott MIDGLEY; 8 Samuel (Sam) MASON-SMITH; 10 Nathanael HAILEMARIAM; 20 Wan GATKEK; 21 Jake (Harvey) WILLIAMS

Officials

Referee: Calvin-kei BERG; Assistant referee 1: Ashton DAVENPORT; Assistant referee 2: Dom BARRY 4th official: Isaac TREVIS

Article added: Friday 13 November 2020