This will be a busy weekend for Otago United coach Terry Phelan, whose skills will be on display both today and tomorrow in Dunedin.
Phelan is taking part in a coaching conference today, along with New Zealand Football coach development manager John Herdman, Johan Koutstaal, Kenny Cresswell, Mike De Bono and others, doing sessions at John McGlashan College starting at 10.30am.
More than 40 coaches are expected to attend the conference, which will have a mix of 11 theoretical and practical sessions.
Phelan is doing ball manipulation, Herdman tools for senior coaching, and Cresswell will do defending in the defensive third.
However, it will be back to the grind tomorrow when Otago United hosts top side Waitakere at Sunnyvale in the team's last home match of the New Zealand Football Championship season.
Otago captain and central defender Colin Falvey is out injured, and his organisational skills may be missed in a fixture that produced a record 8-0 loss for Otago in 2007.
Little has changed since then. Otago is still struggling in second-bottom place, with a single win this season, while Waitakere has had just one loss.
"[It's our] penultimate game and last at home for Otago United," Phelan said.
"We will be looking forward to hosting the minor premiership champions. Having lost 3-0 to Waitakere away earlier this season we know what to expect, and it's up to Otago to sustain the pressure from the players they have.
"If we finish off like [we did] against Wellington, I can see us getting some valuable points on the table. If we start off like we did against Wellington, then it's going to be an extremely difficult 90 minutes."
Otago fans are now used to life in the basement, but provincial rivalry demands that Phelan's side retains its slim goal-difference superiority over bottom side Canterbury, which plays Wellington in the capital.
Preserving that margin should be incentive enough for Otago players to totally concentrate on tomorrow's match, and defer thoughts of the coming Soccersouth preseason and following Premier League competition.
One player likely to relish the challenge of facing Waitakere's firepower will be keeper Liam Little. Little has been selected by national coach Ricki Herbert to play in next week's international against Kuwait.
The big keeper has hitherto been a benchwarmer for New Zealand, but this time Herbert says Little will play at least half a game, and a strong match against Waitakere will help the Otago keeper stake his claim.
Waitakere manager Chris Milicich said the game against Otago was an opportunity to give key players Hone Fowler and Danny Hay precious match fitness before the play-offs and O-league matches.
"Having Benji [Totori] back from injury means for the first time in weeks we get our full complement of strikers available for selection," Milicich said.
Jake Butler is suspended for Waitakere's final two league games after picking up his sixth yellow card in the win over Hawkes Bay. Totori comes back from injury and Fowler also comes back into contention for the game.
Several players are out for the clash, including Welsh midfielder Chris Bale, who is being rested.
• Otago v Waitakere - Sunnyvale, tomorrow, 3pm
Otago: Liam Little, Rhys Henderson, Tristan Prattley, Barry Gardiner, Mike Smith, Robbie Deeley, Blair Scoullar, Tom Jackson, Dave Dugdale, Andy Coburn, Aaron Burgess, Callum Flaws, Morgan Day, Tim Horner, Tom Connor, Seamus Ryder, Stu Kelly.
Waitakere: Richard Gillespie, Aaron Scott, Tim Myers, Danny Hay, Hone Fowler, Benjamin Totori, Allan Pearce, Neil Sykes, Roy Krishna, Daniel Koprivcic, Jeff Campbell, Neil Emblen, Jake Butler, Zane Sole, Danny Robinson.
