Hobart United can decide the destination of the title this weekend

Third-placed Beachside take on bottom-side Christian United in the Division One competition at the Showground 3 pitch at 2.30pm on Saturday.

Christian United must win if they are to avoid the wooden spoon.

Christian have an inferior goal-difference to second-last Northern Suburbs DOSA, so it would need to be a sizeable win, too, if Christian are to escape from last place.

Christian suffered a major blow last weekend.

They beat DOSA 7-5, but then had the result turned around 3-0 in favour of DOSA because Christian had fielded a suspended and, therefore, ineligible player.

That opened up a 6-point gap between the sides and Christian only have two games remaining.

Beachside have far too much class and experience to lose this game, so it looks inevitable that Christian will be handed the wooden spoon.

Second-placed Taroona travel to Pontville on Sunday to take on fifth-placed Hobart United at 2.30pm.

This is a vital game for Taroona as a win would put them back on top of the ladder and pile enormous pressure on current leaders, Metro, who play their final match next weekend.

“Hobart United have been in pretty good form recently and we haven’t had a game for a couple of weeks so we’ll need to make sure we’re switched on,” said Taroona coach, Ben Horgan.

“It really is an important game because if we lose we hand Metro the title.

“If we win, we keep the pressure on them for another week.

“Hobart United have some very quick and skilful players and we won’t be taking them lightly.”

Chris Cox comes into the Taroona squad in place of Duncan Carey, who is interstate.

“It’s great to have Chris back from injury as he is very dangerous whenever he plays, but especially when I have the luxury of using him off the bench against tiring defences,” Horgan said.

Hobart United should be at full strength and, because they hold the key to the destination of the title, they have everything to play for.

They can hand the title to Metro by beating Taroona, or if they lose, they can hand the title to Taroona by beating Metro next weekend.

“Although we are playing good football, it hasn’t been good enough against the top teams,” said Hobart United’s Pedro Ramirez.

“Having said that, though, we are a worthy and competitive team, but we need to play at a much faster pace against Taroona as they will be very dangerous if we go on the defensive too much.

“The key to success is to put a lot of pressure on them.”