Important games at top and bottom of Premier League ladder make for fascinating round of matches

Photos (Top to Bottom): Nathan Pitchford...travelled down from Launceston to train with Eagles; Olympia striker Kosta Grillas will pose a danger to Eagles; South Hobart coach Ken Morton; Glenorchy Knights coach Eamonn Kelly; Taroona coach Ben Horgan [PlessPix]

James Sherman may be available for Glenorchy Knights when they entertain South Hobart in the Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League match at KGV Park on Friday night.

The midfielder, who scored a hat-trick against New Town Eagles last weekend, is due to travel to London on Sunday but may play one final game before leaving.

Knights’ veteran defender Tony Dzelalija has not recovered from an injury and will not play.

It looks likely, therefore, that Knights will field the same side that scraped home 4-3 against Eagles last Friday to go to the top of the ladder with two wins from two outings.

“We hope to have an unchanged side from last week, but this will be a different game to the Summer Cup final,” said Knights coach, Eamonn Kelly.

“They’re a class unit and well organised.

“We had our shocker last week and now that we’ve got that out of the way we can move forward from here.

“We still have a long way to go with our fitness, though.”

Apart from Liam Scott, South Hobart should be at full strength.

Scott had the plaster removed from his broken elbow this week but is still not ready to resume.

Shae Hickey trained this week but will need to pass a fitness test on his injured ankle before being considered for selection.

Andy King will come into the South Hobart senior squad.

“We’re cautious,” said South Hobart coach, Ken Morton.

“We’re well aware that Corey Smith and Amadu Koroma are scoring a lot of goals and have formed a good partnership in attack, although I suspect Corey may play in midfield.

“They distribute the ball well, too, while Josh Fielding is very crafty in midfield.

“We’re well aware of their strengths, but we’ll be focusing on how we want to play.”

Hobart Olympia host New Town Eagles at South Hobart on Saturday in a bottom-of-the-table clash that is very important for both sides as a win will be invaluable.

This is a make-or-break game for both sides as they need to pick up points soon if morale is not to drop in the respective camps.

Eagles will be without central defenders Chris Wass, who is injured, and Steve Louden, who is unavailable.

Midfielder Jamie Vernon is unavailable because of work commitments.

Shane Kent and Jacob Clamp will come into the starting line-up.

“This is an important game for both sides and we’ve trained well for it,” said Eagles coach, George Krambousanos.

“Our goalkeeper, Nathan Pitchford, even travelled down from Launceston for our Thursday night training session.

“I’m setting up my team to win this game and we’re not looking at Olympia’s past record against us or their recent performances and we’ll concentrate on our game.”

Olympia will be without Peter Tsakiris, while Mark Wakefield and Nick Meredith are away on interstate holidays.

New African recruit Warren Wadawu is still injured.

Chris Kumpulainen, a former senior player at the club, will come into the side after returning from overseas and playing in the reserves in mid-week, while Emmauel Tsakiris came through the mid-week game all right after recovering from a calf injury and he will start on the bench.

Kosta Grillas poses a huge threat and he scored in the mid-week game and Eagles will need to be fast and well organised to cope with him.

Sixteen-year-old Brady Cronk, from the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, is a newcomer for Olympia and will play in attack.

Adam Hedge also returns after injury and is likely to fill a midfield role.

Adam Powell and Rory McCallum will start on the bench, so Olympia will need to form a new central defensive partnership and it could be Robert Lebski and Fletcher Tracy.

Olympia coach Chris Hey said his team had watched video footage of last weekend’s game against Clarence and that a final training session will be held on Saturday morning.

The other game on Saturday is at Kelevdon Park between home-side Taroona and visitors Clarence United.

Both have one win and one loss under their belts going into this contest.

“For some reason, we’ve always performed reasonably well against Clarence without ever managing to look like beating them, so we need to change that this weekend,” said Taroona coach, Ben Horgan.

“I thought we played some good football last week, barring the mistakes for Zebras’ third goal, and if we maintain that form but eliminate those silly defensive errors, we should do okay.

“Jack Elliott will return to the side, but I’m still waiting to see whether our captain, Sam Johnson, has recovered sufficiently from the head injury which has been bothering him for the last week or so.

“He’s been cleared of concussion, but I’ll need to be sure that he’s one hundred per cent right before confirming that he’ll play.

“Otherwise, it will be a similar line-up to the side which played against Zebras.”

On Sunday, Tilford Zebras welcome Kingborough Lions United to KGV Park, the venue for some amazing clashes between these two teams in the past.

Both sides will be unchanged from last weekend.

“We have no injuries and a full squad from which to choose,” said Zebras coach, Romeo Frediani.

“We had some good training sessions this week and I’m happy with the way we’ve started the season and I just hope it continues that way.”

Lions coach Geoff Freeman said his side had played really well against South Hobart last weekend and could have come away with at least a point and possibly three but for the own-goal and a couple of superb saves from South’s Sam Kruijver.

He said he was looking forward to this meeting with the Zebras.