The destination of the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League title may well be decided at KGV Park at 6pm on Saturday when current leaders Tilford Zebras take on second-placed and reigning champions South Hobart.
The sides have met twice in the league this season and each have won once.
Zebras will welcome back midfielder Ricky Self, but midfielder Paul Cairns is suspended after being sent off against Clarence United last weekend.
“It’s a big game for both sides, but whether or not it’s the title decider is an open question as there are more games to play,” said Zebras coach, Nick Lapolla.
“We’ll go into this as the underdogs and they’ll be very hard to beat, but I hope it doesn’t come down to one mistake deciding the match, as it did the last time we met.”
South are trying to sign and obtain a clearance in time for the match for 25-year-old Englishman, Liam MacKin, a striker, who was an apprentice at both Queens Park Rangers and also played for Fulham Town.
South will be at full strength and MacKin is unlikely to play as FFT have received no request for him to be registered.
The latest information is that he has not played serious football for five years and he missed training on Thursday so he remains an unknown quantity.
Third-placed Glenorchy Knights trave to Lightwood Park on Saturday to take on fifth-ranked Kingborough Lions United and the state of the pitch may have a bearing on the outcome.
Knights will be without captain Josh Fielding, who has the flu, and Brazilian Breno Bianchini Joviano Dos Santos, who aggravated an ankle injury at training on Monday.
“I don’t think we’ll see much of Dos Santos this year,” said Knights coach, Eamonn Kelly.
“He may get one game, against Hobart Olympic, but he’ll be lucky to play because of this unfortunate injury.
“It’ll be hard for us down at Lightwood, but it should be a good, equally-balanced game because they play the same kind of football as we do in a way.”
Damien and Trent Pearce are both doubtful for Kingborough because of illness, while Charlie White picked up a knock in the intrastate representative game last weekend and may miss this match.
Midfielder Brett Andrews is suspended, while midfielder Ryan Bevan strained a muscle against New Town Eagles and must be considered doubtful.
Striker Greg Freeman and midfielder Ross Hinkley are trying to regain fitness and may play a part in the match.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge of the Knights and we will have to look at a few different options, but I still expect a good showing from us,” said Kingborough coach, Geoff Freeman.
New Town Eagles entertain Clarence United at Clare Street on Sunday in a game that is important to both sides in the fight against relegation.
Clarence beat University 5-0 on Thursday evening, however, and this has taken the pressure off Eagles as University are all but relegated now.
Eagles will be without goalkeeper Michael Soszynski and defender Nick Ferrall, while Alex Gordon may start on the bench.
Eagles’ coach, George Krambousanos, said training had been disrupted by the wet weather but that all the other teams had been similarly affected.
Clarence have a demanding schedule with two games in four days, but their young players should be up to the task.
University have only a slim chance of avoiding relegation now and they face Hobart Olympic at South Hobart on Saturday.
They may be fired up, however, and Olympic must not take things lightly if they are to earn the three points.
7 comments:
Very interesting story, does anyone else have a problem with signings this late in a season or is it just me ??
going on my count walter clarence are clear of any relegation threat being 10 points clear of uni.
fourth spot will be the interesting pick now. Olympic must beat uni to stay in the hunt and the double header for borough and clarence next week will be the telling games.
pick... 4th clarence on current form, 5th kingo, 6th Olympic and new town lucky to be 7th.
uni gone... good luck in div 1 next year. tough times ahead.
I thought there was a cut off date so clubs could not sign players up at the end of the season? End of June I was told. This will be very interesting
What do you mean "Eagles lucky to be 7th"? Do you think they should be the one's in 8th place? Interesting if you do. I have seen a few of their games and they have played pretty well. Just missed too many sitters from all accounts. I could think of a few other clubs that should be down that end of the table. Uni can thank Karma for their position
2 up, 2 down??
R U Serious Ref, I assume that when you say Uni can thank karma for their possition it is in relation to having the TIS play as their U19 team?
Uni's problem was that they had a poor pre season which led them to lose the first 7 matches, correct me if I am wrong but I think since then Uni have got more points than New Town?
I was talking about the TIS thing yes.
Not sure about the points thing though. You may be right. It may come down to the last game of the season.
I guess when you look at it FFT have kind of got the re-structuring of the Premier League right. Cut it back to an 8 team comp and it's all pretty close with the 8. The Div 1 set up is a bit of a worry htough. DOSA had to forfeit their reserves game today the comp is a bit lop sided. Maybe FFT really need to look harder at th Div 1 comp & work out a way to make this a competative league
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