Friday, August 28, 2009

Taroona can take over at the top of Division One

Taroona can put pressure on Division One leaders Metro by beating bottom-side Christian United at Queens Walk at 3pm on Saturday.


Metro have the bye and could find themselves two points adrift of Taroona come Saturday evening.


“We have to make sure we win to keep up the pressure on Metro,” said Taroona coach, Ben Horgan.


“We’ll have the same squad as last week and everyone is raring to go.


“I thought our first half last week against Beachside was outstanding and it is great for the club’s future that young players like Ben Schaap and Ruaidhri Carey have come into the team over the last month or so and have held down key positions.


“Ben kept Bernhard Klasen very quiet and Ruaidhri was very good in central midfield.”


Beachside, in third place, host sixth-ranked Northern Suburbs DOSA at Sandown Park on Saturday at 2.30pm.


Ben Davis is back for Beachside, but they will miss midfielder Colin Wain, who is unavailable.


“There is nothing at stake in this game, but we are looking forward to playing DOSA, who have proved to be a very difficult opponent this season,” said Beachside coach, Nathan Robinson.


Nelson Eastern Suburbs are in fourth spot and they host second-last Hobart United at North Warrane at 2.30pm on Saturday.


Nelson will miss midfielder Luke Wallace and defender Lewis Gibbs.


Robert Brooke is a doubtful starter for Nelson, while Richard Flood and Nick Roberts have junior coaching commitments and may only play a half.


Nelson’s Under-13s have won the league and are unbeaten going into the last game of the season.


Craig Stockdale, an important defender for Nelson, should be available, while Tom Roach will return to the side at fullback.


Max Caulfield and Oliver Ireland, two 16-year-olds, will come into the Nelson squad, while 18-year-olds Jordan Brighella, Andrew Gaskell and Cameron Rush are also likely to play.


“We have our usual roll call of players who are unavailable this week,” said nelson coach, Michael Roach.


“But, we fortunately have a good bunch of young players coming through and, with our goalkeeper Nic De Carpentier aged 17, that’s six teenagers in the team this week.


“So, as with last week, there’s plenty of ability and self belief in the group.


“We won’t underestimate Hobart United, who have some dangerous and fast forwards who always create us trouble.”


Hobart United’s Pedro Ramirez said his side was confident after last week’s win against Christian United.


“I hope the team can play against Nelson as they did in the first half last week against Christian, when we stuck to our game plan and scored three goals,” Ramirez said.


“It’s the only way we will win against a Nelson side that has improved greatly and which drew with Metro last week and is full of confidence.”

4 comments:

Pixel 40 said...

Go Hobart united, it is the moment of Truth for all of you guys

Freddy said...

Nice to see Nelson with so many young players these days, they have come a long way with youth development. A credit to them!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hobart United seniors, while no longer in the race for DIV1 Champions can play a huge part in who does. That is of course if they can get their act together.

However the jury is still out on their ability to play good football for 90mins. Nelson are stubborn side and perhaps one of the best defending teams in the division and it will take a disciplined team to beat them. Hobart United will be fielding a half a squad with players under 18 as it has done for the last month or so, they are earned their right to play and might surprise a few.
It should be a good contest