Marshall’s men encountered Auckland four times during the domestic season and picked up three wins and a draw, lifting two pieces of silverware in the process.
Having already pocketed the ASB Charity Cup and ASB Premiership titles, Marshall now has his sights set on an even higher honour and his side’s chances of becoming kings of Oceania will receive a significant boost if they can defeat their familiar foes tomorrow.
“We’ve had the edge on them this year,” Marshall says.
“But this is another phase in the season, the national league has gone now and we have moved into the Champions League stage. Auckland have historically done very well in this competition and we’re going to be looking to do well too.”
While acknowledging the importance of all matches between New Zealand’s leading clubs, Marshall feels tomorrow’s challenge is no more significant than any other Waitakere will face during the campaign.
“It’s a big game but every time you play in the Champions League it’s a big game, whether you’re playing Auckland City or one of the Pacific Island teams,” he says. “They’re all like cup finals.”
Waitakere opened their season with a scoreless stalemate at home against Tahitian outfit Dragon last weekend and Marshall admits it was a frustrating afternoon.
“We were disappointed with some of our finishing obviously but we still played very well I thought, particularly out of possession. Our in-possession game was also quite good, up until trying to put the ball into the back of the net. It was just our finishing that let us down and allowed the nil-all result.”
Marshall believes competing on an international level across the Pacific offers a very different prospect to the battles faced on the homefront in New Zealand’s national league.
“It’s different in many respects, you’ve got the overseas travel for a start and the heat to contend with. The domestic campaign is all run in the weekends but some of these games are mid-week. So it is completely different and it’s unfortunate that we’re not professional, if we were then it would be an easier challenge. With the players being amateur and all holding down jobs it’s pretty tough going,” he says.
“But it’s a competition that all the players aspire to and we achieved Champions League status for next season by winning the national league final the other week which we were very happy about.”
The west Aucklanders’ title-winning squad has been boosted with the recruitment of a handful of new arrivals and Marshall hopes at least two of these, English import Chris Palmer and former All White Jeremy Christie, will play some part on Sunday.
“We’ve added to the squad and hopefully with those inclusions we’ve got what it takes and, if we get the decision making right on the sideline, then we can do well,” he says.

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