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By FRED WOODCOCK
Stuff.co.nz - Wellington,New Zealand

History is against Team Wellington but form firmly suggests tonight's NZFC clash with Auckland City will live up to its billing as the match of the season.

The competition's two top teams face off at Newtown Park this evening with Wellington, who had a bye last week after their perfect five from five start to the season, able to reclaim the league lead with a win.

Standing in their way, however, is a City side which has not lost this season (five wins and a draw). During their three consecutive NZFC premierships, City have never lost to Wellington, recording nine successive victories.

Stu Jacobs has quickly settled in as coach and found the winning formula, though his side gets an opportunity to set a benchmark against the deserved favourites.

He is promising to throw everything at Auckland as they set about redressing the gross imbalance in results during recent years.

"We've got ourselves in a unique position where we can really afford to go out and try and win the game - we can afford to be more expansive and take them to task."

Accordingly, Jacobs has tinkered with the starting lineup, bringing Lower Hutt City's Costa Rican striker Luis Corrales in to partner Graham Little in a small but quick forward line.

"We think if that we can get their back two stretched into wide areas, one of Luis' biggest assets is his pace, so we could use that as a weapon and he's a good finisher, too. If we just play things long and play things in the air that will suit [Ben] Sigmund and [Greg] Uhlmann."

At the back, Karl Whalen comes in to partner Sean Douglas in the middle, with Mike Wilson reverting to a holding midfield role, allowing fellow former All White Raf de Gregorio to play in behind the strikers.

"We've been pretty free-flowing going forward ourselves, so we're not going to change that in any way.

"But certainly we need to be aware of their front players, they're very, very good, and we've made some changes hopefully to solidify things."

Striker Daniel Ellensohn returns to the bench after an injury layoff, but Jamie Farrington, Andy Barron and Darren Cheriton are all still at least a week away.

Meanwhile, former Knights defender Cole Tinkler, who has returned from playing in Singapore, will be available for next Sunday's match against Waitakere United with his four-week stand-down period finishing next Saturday.

In other Team Wellington news, import Chris Gores has been called into the Puerto Rico national squad and leaves at Christmas. Jacobs said it had yet to be determined whether he would return to Wellington for the latter half of the season.

In today's other match, Waitakere United should be too strong for struggling Otago United, while tomorrow Waikato FC host Hawke's Bay United and YoungHeart Manawatu return home to play Canterbury United.

THE LINEUPS:

Wellington: Phil Imray, Sam Peters, Sean Douglas, Karl Whalen, Peter Howe, Adam Birch, Michael Wilson, Luis Corrales, Graham Little, Raf de Gregorio, Wiremu Patrick. Substitutes: Peter Halstead, Dylan Hall, Steve Gulley, Daniel Ellensohn, George Barbarouses.

Auckland: Ross Nicholson, Ben Sigmund, Ki-Hyung Lee, James Pritchett, Chad Coombes, Paul Urlovic, Grant Young, Luiz Del Monte, Tamati Williams, Keryn Jordan, Jeff Campbell, Bryan Little, Henry Fa'arodo, Greg Uhlmann, Eliezer Anello, Rupesh Puna.

Referee: Matthew Conger

Kick off: 6pm today

TAB odds: Wellington $2.85, Auckland $2.25, draw $3.25