Saturday, August 7, 2021

It's now or possibly never for the Knights

The match of the round in the NPL Tasmania competition this weekend is at Valley Road at 2.15pm when league-leaders and reigning champions Devonport Strikers host second-placed Glenorchy Knights.

The result could go a long way to determining this year’s title.

With just 6 games to go, Knights must win to go on top and strengthen their title chances.

The omens are not good, though.

The sides have met twice this season and Knights have yet to win.

They lost to Devonport in the Lakoseljac Cup Final, but a cup game that went to extra-time and penalties doesn’t really count.

More importantly. Knights were whipped 4-0 by Devonport at Valley Road on 10 July and that result was of greater relevance to today’s contest.

Knights had no answer to Devonport that day and will be desperate to avoid a repeat.

The sides meet again at KGV Park on 4 September, but it may be too late for the Knights by then if Devonport win today.

The visitors must counter the threat of Eddie Bidwell, Brody Denehey and Jordan Lamb in attack, while they must sit tight on playmaker Joel Stone.

If they can do that, they will be in with a chance.

They must also rely on their top scorer, Nicholas Mearns, to add to his current tally of 11 goals.

Nick Naden and Austin Yost must also come to the party with goals, while Eduardo Castenada, who has only scored once this campaign, must both create and try and score goals.

The clash promises to be an intriguing one and the winner at the end of the day will be looking good for the title.

Third-placed South Hobart are out of the running but should be able to improve morale by downing bottom-side Riverside Olympic away at Windsor Park at 2.30pm.

Clarence Zebras travel to Buckby Motors Park in Launceston for a meeting with Launceston City at 2.30pm and this should be a close encounter

Olympia Warriors, languishing in second-last place, will be keen to beat fourth-ranked Kingborough Lions United at home at Warrior Park at 4.30pm today.

Olympia did well to down South Hobart last weekend and it will be interesting to see what their star, Kyle Vincent, can do to the Lions.

Rob Clark will be back at the coaching helm of Olympia this week and their talisman coach, Alex Holmes, will be on the bench as his assistant again.

NPL Tasmania (As at 31 July 2021)

TEAM

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

Devonport City

15

12

1

2

40

10

37

Glenorchy Knights

15

11

3

1

46

16

36

South Hobart

15

8

4

3

35

19

28

Kingborough Lions

15

6

3

6

27

30

21

Launceston City

15

5

1

9

19

34

16

Clarence Zebras

15

4

3

8

27

37

15

Olympia Warriors

15

4

2

9

23

37

14

Riverside Olympic

15

0

3

12

21

56

3

 

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the amount of money knights get from a certain sponsor and what they pay there players they should be at least 10 points in front of everyone else!!

Anonymous said...

Borough pay more then anyone else