State League 2 Round 6 Preview

State League 2 round six kicks off with an intriguing Saturday evening match-up between University of NSW and unbeaten Southern Branch at David Phillips Field (5pm kickoff).
Everyone else had played for almost a month before Uni fielded their first games, a fine 2-1 win over Southern Bulls followed by a flippant 0-4 loss to competition leaders Hurstville FC on the weekend. They now meet an in-form Branch whose miserly defence has leaked just twice in four games (three clean sheets) and already taken four shiny souvenir points from their two Sydney road trips. Another positive result would lift Branch even further up the tree.
There’s plenty of scores to settle in the Hurstville City Minotaurs versus Western Condors dust-up at Punchbowl Oval on Sunday afternoon (3pm kickoff). The two division two combatants have had some amazing battles over the years, including knocking each other out of consecutive finals races (Condors’ previous identity Fairfield Wanderers going on to win the 2009 trophy after defeating Minotaurs 3-1 in the elimination semi-final, but Hurstville ending Fairfield’s 2010 title defence with an epic 3-2 qualifying final win at Knight Park). In fact, City’s won four of their past six encounters with Condors, a feisty 2-2 draw in last year’s corresponding fixture underlining the closeness between the sides.
Stanmore Hawks tackle leaders Hurstville FC at Arlington Oval on Sunday afternoon (3pm) – the sixth straight season they’ve lined up against each other. FC rule the state league 2 roost after notching up win number four against Uni on the weekend (ending an eight match winless run against Uni in the process) while Hawks have responded well since an opening round loss to Minotaurs to make for an exciting Mothers Day clash. There’s an historical flavour as well with Stanmore winning seven of their past 11 meetings (one draw), including 3-0, 3-0 and 2-0 shutouts in the last three games at Arlington (Hawks also beat Hurstville 5-0 in last year’s corresponding home fixture at Seymour Shaw Park). This should be a cracker as FC move to bash another record out of the park.
Winless Enfield Rovers welcome unbeaten Fairfield City Lions to Pratten Park for a Mothers Day meeting (3pm), but this’ll be no walk in the park for either team. Enfield are still learning the state league ropes and will continue to learn important lessons every week. They’re sure to get some more with a match-up against a rampant Lions outfit that’s already found eight goalscorers in their ranks in just three outings (only leaders Hurstville has more with nine). At the other end only two Rovers have netted in four games (one more than Schofields), so it’s clear where the major discrepancy lies.
There’s no better time than Sunday (3pm) for Schofields Scorpions to regain their state league footing with a match against Belmore United at the CSI Ground. Schofields showed signs of improvement in a 7-1 loss to Condors on the weekend (they’d conceded 20 goals in their previous two games) and host a Belmore unit also searching for their own consistency. Interestingly, the only official match since their 2006 division one days went Schofields way, a 3-2 Waratah Cup knockout win in 2010 – can Scorpions turn back the pages and start writing a new club chapter or will Belmore dish out more humble pie?
Southern Bulls have the bye.
-By Dan De Nardi