Photo: Knights' Alex Bellini (left) and South Hobart coach ken Morton at today's media conference [PlessPix]
Glenorchy Knights, South Hobart,
Olympia Warriors and Launceston City will be chasing the only piece of silverware
still on offer this season when they contest the semi-finals of the Lakoseljac
Cup this weekend.
Glenorchy Knights host South Hobart at
KGV Park at 6.30pm on Saturday in one semi-final, while on Sunday, Olympia
Warriors entertain Launceston City at Warrior Park at 2pm.
Both games appear close affairs and it
is difficult to pick the two teams that will contest the cup final in a week’s time.
Knights go into this game with a fine
record this season against South Hobart, but they will be smarting after last
week’s 4-1 loss at KGV Park to NPL Tasmania champions,
Devonport City.
Knights have beaten South Hobart 3-1
away this season, while their most recent meeting earlier this month at KGV
Park ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
This is a cup game and anything is
possible, especially given that both sides should be at full strength.
Photo: Alex Bellini should start for Knights against South Hobart tomorrow [PlessPix]
“Physically,
everyone’s pretty good and we haven’t
had many injuries this year,” said Knights midfielder
Alex Bellini.
“We’ve almost kept the same starting eleven so we’ve been pretty lucky with that.
“I’m personally proud of what we’ve
achieved this season, but some of us are disappointed because we did want to
win the league.
“Winning the
league was an ambition, but it wasn’t always a super
realistic one. Personally, I’m proud.”
“We’re all pretty excited about this semi-final as it’s a big opportunity to win a trophy.
“Because we had
that loss last week, it might motivate us a bit more. We might have been a bit complacent so
hopefully the set-back will do good things for us.
“We’ll see when we get out there, I suppose.
“Against
Devonport, I don’t we played terribly and it was a case
of fine margins and a few defensive mistakes cost us.
“I don’t think it was a terrible performance.”
Bellini said South Hobart were a side
that pressed strongly and the 1-1 draw when they last met could have gone any
way.
He said the fact this was a cup
semi-final makes it unpredictable.
“It’s 50/50,” Bellini said.
Photo: South Hobart coach Ken Morton said his side would start as the underdogs [PlessPix]
South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, said his
team would be highly motivated because there was a strong family connection at
the club with this trophy.
He said he would field his strongest
side and Andy Brennan would start.
“We’re definitely the underdogs,” Morton
said. “They beat
us well in the first game but I though we were a bit unfortunate in the return
game not to have got more here at KGV.
“We’ll go into the game with confidence as we’ve
been playing okay and creating a lot of chances and, if we can put those
chances away, we’ll give ourselves a good chance.”
Launceston City’s
claim to fame is that they knocked out Devonport City in the first round of the
competition this year and then knocked out the reigning Southern Champions,
Hobart United in the quarterfinals.
A team is only as good as its last
game, however, and City’s last game was 2-0 loss to
Clarence Zebras in the league.
Olympia have nothing to crow about
either as they lost their last game 3-2 away to Kingborough Lions United in the
league.
This semi-final may well be a game that
goes to extra-time, therefore, although Olympia’s
home-ground advantage should give them a slight edge.
Olympia beat Launceston City 2-1 at
Warrior Park and 4-0 away in Launceston, so on that basis, Olympia should be
favourites.
But, Launceston City may be regarded as
cup specialists this season and they will rely on this reputation to get them
through.
A good performance by Rob Gerrard could
hold the key to this game.
