State League Two – Finals Week 3 preview

With Stanmore Hawks already through to next week’s championship decider it comes down to an exciting preliminary final matchup between Fairfield City Lions and Western Condors at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday afternoon (2.30pm kickoff).
Fairfield City Lions also battle Stanmore Hawks in the grade-20 preliminary final at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday (12pm kickoff), the winner to meet Hurstville City Minotaurs in next week’s grand final.
Check the footballnsw.com.au website for full details.
Lions meet Condors
It’s do or die as Western Condors challenge Fairfield City Lions at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday afternoon (2.30pm kickoff) for the right to meet premiers Stanmore Hawks in the final trophy decider.
Stanmore smashed Fairfield 4-1 last week and the shellshocked Lions are ripe for a swooping Condors squadron that’s already picked off Southern Bulls and University of NSW in successive sudden death encounters to march into this weekend’s south-west confrontation with confidence and appetite.
Their season stats may be contrasting but the games played haven’t been: Two late goals helped Condors to a 2-2 deadlock at Valentine Park way back in round two, followed by a 0-0 round-13 stalemate – the fourth draw in a row between the iconic Sydney clubs.
Both sides have showed defensive fortitude throughout the season conceding a combined 42 goals in 20 matches but Fairfield’s scored 58 goals compared to Western’s 33 and found 18 different scorers to eight Condors sharpshooters to tip the scales in the Lions favour.
However, Fairfield’s discipline has been called into question many times this season, a staggering 22 players receiving yellow cards over winter and any wayward on-field behaviour may preface their downfall.
Lions coach Tony Basha downplayed this week’s occasion stating Condors had a better chance against Hawks anyway, and instead said his players were looking forward to their post-season games in Malaysia and Singapore.
Stanmore coach George Paradisis agreed. “I won’t be surprised if Condors beat Fairfield. Condors are playing finals football at the moment and Tony should be worried… we totally demoralised Fairfield on the weekend,” he said. “I’d actually rather play Fairfield because Condors are on a roll and our games against them were very tough this year.”
Western coach Barry Zambrano wanted to stay right out of it. “We’re little on words,” he said. “We’ve produced form at the right part of season and quite happy to be the underdogs. There’s no pressure on us at all. Fairfield haven’t beaten us this year and we’re looking forward to a good battle and pushing to get to a grand final spot.”
Grade 20
Hurstville City Minotaurs sprang a major upset when they rolled runaway premiers Fairfield City in a semi-final penalty shootout on the weekend to grab the first grand final spot on offer, consigning the Lions to a preliminary final bout against Stanmore Hawks at Ernie Smith Reserve on Sunday (12pm kickoff).
It was Fairfield’s first loss of the campaign and will surely fire them up this weekend, but Stanmore has done a good job versus the competition heavyweights this year, leading 2-1 at halftime in round eight before drawing 2-2, and sticking it to Lions in a 1-0 defeat in a tight round-19 encounter. This will be a terrific contest!