Clarence United can do other Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League teams a huge favour if they can beat league-leaders Tilford Zebras at home at Wentworth Park at 6.30pm on Saturday.
Clarence beat Zebras in the first round, away at KGV Park, so a win at home is a distinct possibility.
Zebras lead with 22 points, five ahead of second-placed South Hobart and eight points in front of fourth-placed Clarence.
Zebras are the in-form team and are scoring freely and will be extremely difficult to conquer.
Clarence’s hopes are boosted by the return of midfielders Ben Parker and Julian McMahon and key defender Toby Ling.
But, Ben Hamlett is still injured and will be rested for another week.
“Last week’s postponement has done us a world of good because it has helped some of our players to recover from niggling little injuries,” said Clarence coach, Andrew Brown.
South Hobart are away to fifth-placed Kingborough Lions United at 2.30pm at Lightwood Park on Saturday and utility player Daniel Brown should be available and he will add some bite to South’s game.
Central-defender Josh Heerey is a doubtful starter against a Lions outfit that suffered a severe set-back last Sunday when they lost 4-1 to New Town Eagles.
“We’ll play in the same manner as we have been and attack them,” said South coach, Ken Morton. “We won’t be there just to defend.
“We’ll try and make the most of our penetration and we have to believe in our own ability.
“We weren’t champions last season by chance and we won’t be leaving our undoubted ability on the training track.
“The players have got to come and deliver now.”
Sixth-ranked New Town Eagles take on second-last Hobart Olympic at KGV Park on Friday night and Eagles coach George Krambousanos is confident of a win, but says it won’t be easy.
He will field an unchanged line-up from last week, which means Cormac Collins will again start on the bench.
Olympic appear to be in crisis, judging from last weekend’s 11-0 loss to Zebras, a game in which two players were also sent off.
Peter Tsakiris and Youssef Mohamad are suspended as a result and Matthew Hedge and Chris Tsimiklis are now likely to be in the starting line-up.
The remaining match of the round is at Olinda Grove on Saturday, where bottom-side University host third-placed Glenorchy Knights.
In the Forestry Tasmania Northern Premier League, leaders Northern Rangers should come away with the three points against Ulverstone at the Ulverstone Showgrounds on Saturday.
Devonport City, in second place and just a point behind Rangers, should stay in touch by overcoming bottom-side Launceston United at home at Valley Road on Saturday.
Third-placed Somerset travels to Windsor Park on Saturday to take on fifth-placed Riverside Olympic.
“We had a great win last week against Prospect Knights, but will lose another defender, in Jordan Wright to injury this week against a strong Riverside Olympic outfit,” said Somerset coach, Kevin Considine.
“Our meetings with Riverside over the past few years have generally ended up being decided by a single goal.
“There is never much between either teams on the park.
“Hopefully, the youngsters who played so well the last couple of weeks can step up again, and the regulars play above themselves as our depth is really being tested at present.
“We are really looking forward to the bye the following week.
“This will enable a few players to get over their niggling injuries, including the experienced Nick Reed and Casey Eaves, and a couple of others to get over the flu.
“But, unfortunately, we then lose a couple of players to travel for the first few matches of the second round.”
The remaining match of the round pits second-last Launceston City against fourth-ranked Prospect Knights at Mitsubishi Park on Saturday and the visitors should be in with a good chance of winning.
3 comments:
should be a cracker of a game at wentworth. clarence with the upper hand in round 1 but since then zebras have won 7 on the bounce. couple of key inclusions for zebras since last meeting should make for a very tight affair. clarence must win to maintain any title challenge. zebras in a tight one.
tonight also looks to be a real key match. olympic must bounce back or their season is finished, and perhaps the coaches...
eagles have shown much improvement the last couple of months and will be hard to beat. eagles by a couple.
knights to win easy over uni. youthful knights to be too slick.
the last game is very hard to pick. both teams have suffered from inconsistency. south will be pleased just to see the back of the knights for a couple of months! both teams playing good football but sometimes walking away empty handed. who will turn up??? a draw first time round may be repeated as south struggle to find the net for all their possession.
Does anyone know the fallout from last sat nights game?? what suspensions were handed out? i'm told kim was seen to be writing plenty of 'notes' on comments made from the crowd.
South penetration? What penetration. I saw both the games against knights and they have nothing in the final third. The midfield is good but they have no drive or speed at goals. Its fine to keep possession and all that but goals win games, not 376 sideway passes a game that lead to nothing. Put pressure on the midfield and they will crumble.
Tipping Borough to win that one 2-0
Knights to beat uni 3-0
Zebras to beat clarence 2-1
Eagles to beat olympic 1-0
Conservative scores there IW, last week in 3 games there was 20 goals.
Ill have a go.
Eagles 4-2, has to be some red cards in that one. one from each team i reckon.
Knights 4-1, Koroma and Smith to score 2 each.
South 3-1, South struggling to keep clean sheets without Kruijver but will score some against Voss.
Zebras 5-2, Clarence off side trap will not work this time. Crosswell 3.
Goals Galore again!
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