State League Division 1 Round 20 Preview

DIVISION ONE
Week Twenty Preview (plus midweek catchup games)
Midweek Games
Round Six : Hurstville ZSC ? Dulwich Hill   0-5
Dulwich Hill have moved within a victory of securing the Division One championship with a resounding 5-0 away win against Hurstville ZSC at Hajduk Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Once again Dully?s variety of attacking armour were on show, with goals to Norman Tome, Sam Messam, Rafael Bove, Nick Paradisis and Neil Philippou.
The win puts Dully on 45 points, six points ahead of Mounties with just three rounds remaining this season.
Round Ten : Schofields Scorpions ? Balmain SC  4-0
Schofields have well and truly announced their intentions at the business end of the season with their third win in the last four games, trouncing Balmain SC 4-0 at CSI Sport Ground on Wednesday night.
Glenn McPherson was on the mark again with goal number 14 for 2009, with Iredale, Harrington and Dean Southern rounding off the goals for the resurgent Scorpions, who move four points clear of fourth placed Inter Lions.
Week Twenty Preview
The opening match of Round 20 kicks off at the earlier than usual kick off time of 5-00pm on Saturday evening, when Balmain SC host UNSW at Lambert Park.
Balmain finally opened their account at Lambert last weekend, and coach Alex Kaltenegger will be looking towards the experience of Jeremy  Pettenon, in defence, and Lorenzo Merlino, in attack, to see them home again.
UNSW coach Luke Andrews on the other hand will have his troops ready to rock and keep up the pressure on the top five teams, and with striker Stuart Meney in top form, they will be hoping for yet another victory in this tight match up.
The first round match ended 3-3 in an exciting encounter, so plenty of more goals could be on the menu.
Kicking off at 7-30pm at CSI Sport Ground on Saturday will be Schofields Scorpions and Hills Brumbies.
After a long and inconsistent spell of results, the Scorpions seemed to have hit their straps at the business end of the season. Coincidentally, top scorer Glenn McPherson has started to score again, so the home side will be confident of another victory.
It?s been an unhappy season for bottom placed Hills Brumbies, but if they have anything to play for it will be pride, and they will be looking for revenge following a 10-2 drubbing at the hands of Schofields in the first round.
The match of the round will be at Francis Park where Blacktown Spartans welcome high flying Mounties for a 7-30pm kick off.
The Spartans are hoping to recover quickly from last week?s drubbing at the hands of Dulwich Hill, and will be hoping Wand Jajaw is firing if they are to retain their top five position.
Mounties have hit a rich vein of form of late, and are a whisker from the top of the competition. With Steve Biviano in scintillating form, they will be hard to stop in a match that promises to be a blockbuster.
Hajduk Stadium hosts the clash between Sydney Wanderers and Stanmore Hawks, with the game scheduled to start at 7-30pm on Saturday night.
The Wanderers can close the gap between the two teams to two points with a win here, and will be pinning their hopes on Ivo De Jesus to do his magic and steer the home side to success.
Stanmore are all but finished in terms of the semi finals, but skipper David James and Chris Theodosiou will have other ideas, and will be looking to dissect the Wanderers defence and help the Hawks to victory.
Another repeat of the first round?s 5-2 drubbing will do just nicely for Inter Lions as they host Hurstville ZSC on Sunday, the match commencing at 3-00pm at Concord Oval.
Coach Ernesto Meduri has guided the Lions to the verge of a semi final spot, and a win here should consolidate their position.
Hurstville will have other ideas, and in Stiven Kostanic have the competition?s equal top marksman, so he will be hoping to replicate his brace of goals against Inter in the first round.
Norford Park will see the arrival of competition leaders, Dulwich Hill, with Fairfield City Lions given the enormous task of trying to stop the Dully juggernaut.
Fairfield have hit some indifferent form recently, and will be playing for pride in this game, hoping to avoid a similar result to that of the first round, which finished in a 1-4 loss.
Dully coach, Mark Strachan, on the other hand, has his team on firing on all cylinders at the moment, and another triumph here will go a long way towards securing the championship.
Division One
Top Goalscorers -Week Nineteen
The scorers chart is becoming as exciting as the chase for semi final spots, with four players equal first with three games to play.
Steve Biviano of Mounties grabbed a hatrick last week, Stuart Meney of UNSW scored a brace, and Glenn McPherson of Schofields has started scoring regularly again ? all three have joined long time leader, Hurstville?s Stiven Kostanic at the top with 14 goals.
14     ? Stiven Kostanic (Hurstville ZSC), Steve Biviano (Mounties FC), Stuart Meney (UNSW), Glenn McPherson (Schofields Scorpions)
11   ? Wissam Hijazi (Stanmore Hawks), Neil Philippou (Dulwich Hill)
  9   ? Todd McCrae (Schofield Scorpions)
  8   ? Dusan Mihajlovic (Dulwich Hill)
  7   ? Sam Messam (Dulwich Hill)
 6   ? Lorenzo Merlino (Balmain SC), Rafael Bove (Dulwich Hill),Nick Paradisis (Dulwich Hill), Daniel Borg (Sydney Wanderers), Nabil Codmani (Fairfield City), Domenic Dimento (Inter Lions), Daniel Cornett (Blacktown Spartans), Wand Jajaw (Blacktown Spartans), Adrian Vizzari (Inter Lions), Stephen Tresoglavic (Mounties FC)

-By Frank Speranza