Photo: Olympia defender Jake Vandermey (left) and Glenorchy Knights coach James Sherman at today's media conference at Football Tasmania headquarters [PlessPix]
Second-placed Olympia Warriors must beat the visiting
seventh-ranked Glenorchy Knights at Warrior Park at 8.15pm today to stay on the
heels of leader Devonport City.
Devonport City are 2 points ahead of Olympia with a game
in hand.
Devonport visit Launceston’s Buckby Land Rover Park
tomorrow to face sixth-ranked Launceston City at 4.30pm. which is a game the
league-leaders are expected to win.
If Olympia lose and Devonport win, the gap will increase
to 5 points again and Devonport will still have a game in hand.
Olympia must be favoured to down the Knights. The sides have met three times this season
(twice in the league and once in the cup) and Olympia have won all three games.
Olympia defender Jake Vandermey said his team would need
to be on the ball to overcome Knights and there was no room for the sort of
lacklustre performance Warriors produced last weekend when they trailed
Kingborough 2-0 with 2 minutes remaining.
Olympia managed to scored three goals in those last 2
minutes and in the 5 minutes of stoppage time to run out 3-2 winners.
“We know we need to perform better if we are to get
results over the next few weeks,” said Vandermey.
“It’ll be a tough game tonight against Knights.
“We’re confident in our ability and we go into every
match to win and that’s the mindset we’ll have tonight to stay in touching distance
of Devonport.”
Vandermey said Devonport were the benchmark for the NPL Tasmania
competition and that Olympia, although rebuilding, were aiming for that benchmark
themselves.
He said consistency was a problem for Olympia, whereas
Devonport always tended to perform at a high level and had a stable line-up.
“We need to play more consistently over the 90 minutes in
each game to reach that level,” he said.
Knights coach James Sherman said he was hoping to get at
least a point from tonight’s encounter.
Sherman said he had used 31 players this season and the
introduction tonight of Malcolm Ursic will bring that number to 32 players who
have actually taken the field.
“We’ve used quite a few, but we’ve had to because we’ve been
unlucky with injuries and unavailability,” Sherman said.
Sherman said he was not worried about the artificial
surface at Warrior Park, which was not as good as that at KGV Park, but he was
uneasy at the smaller size of the ground.
Warrior Park measures 99 metres by 60.9 metres, whereas
KGV Park is 100 metres long and 70 metres wide.
Playing wide on the flanks will be a concern, therefore,
as wingers will not have as much room.
Olympia are used to this and know how to compensate for
the lack of width.
Knights love to spread the ball wide and it will be
interesting to see how they cater for the narrower pitch.
Devonport’s biggest weapon is striker Miles Barnard, who
has scored 13 goals in the past three games and if left unattended has the
potential to destroy Launceston City.
Launceston City coach Lino Sciulli is certain to have
worked out a strategy to combat Barnard and Devonport will need to be at the
best to come away with the 3 points.
Fifth-placed Kingborough Lions United should easily
account for bottom-side Clarence United at 4.30pm tomorrow at Wentworth Park.
Fourth-placed Hobart Zebras can leap-frog third-ranked
South Hobart if they win their clash at South Hobart Oval at 2pm on Sunday.
Nicky Edwards comes into the Zebras squad after missing
two games through a hamstring injury.
Henry Fagg returns after not playing for the past four
weeks, but Adam McKeown is out after limping off with a hamstring strain in the
previous game.
South Hobart should be at full strength and realise how
important victory is against Zebras if they are to retain third place.
NPL Tasmania (As at 6 July 2019)
|
TEAM
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
Pts
|
|
Devonport City
|
15
|
13
|
1
|
1
|
58
|
12
|
40
|
|
Olympia Warriors
|
16
|
12
|
2
|
2
|
53
|
16
|
38
|
|
South Hobart
|
15
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
51
|
20
|
30
|
|
Hobart Zebras
|
16
|
8
|
5
|
3
|
51
|
32
|
29
|
|
Kingborough Lions
|
16
|
6
|
1
|
9
|
29
|
36
|
19
|
|
Launceston City
|
15
|
5
|
3
|
7
|
26
|
26
|
18
|
|
Glenorchy Knights
|
16
|
5
|
2
|
9
|
38
|
35
|
17
|
|
Riverside Olympic
|
15
|
2
|
1
|
12
|
13
|
46
|
7
|
|
Clarence United
|
16
|
1
|
0
|
15
|
4
|
109
|
3
|
1 comment:
What a horrible game. Olympia look as though they are they away team and don't know how to play the smaller ground. Boy they were lucky Knights are pretty ordinary.Even if they had their injured players in I dint think the team would be much better if any at all.
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