Mens State League Two Round 3 Preview

Football NSW State League Two round three features University of NSW versus Hurstville FC at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon, Hurstville City Minotaurs host Prospect United at St George Stadium on Saturday evening, Rydalmere Lions tackle Western Condors at Rydalmere Park on Sunday afternoon, while Enfield Rovers meet Southern Bulls at Garside Park on Monday afternoon. Southern Branch have the bye.

University of NSW versus Hurstville FC looms as an exciting fixture at David Phillips Field on Saturday afternoon (3pm kickoff). The two sides traded 4-0 home blows last year, but it’s the only time Hurstville’s beaten Uni in 10 intriguing division one and two encounters (that’s also conjured up 41 goals between them). Worse for FC, Uni have scored 17 times in their past four meetings at David Phillips Field, including a 6-1 bashing in 2009, and ride on the back of a solid 1-0 win against Prospect last week. Hurstville started the season with an excellent 1-0 defeat of heavyweights Rydalmere, but also have a crunch Waratah Cup match next week, so … anything goes!

Hurstville City Minotaurs host Prospect United in a terrific showdown at St George Stadium on Saturday evening (5pm). Both teams have registered four wins apiece and a draw from nine entertaining division two meetings (38 goals produced) and though Prospect have the biggest win, a 6-2 thrashing in 2009, Hurstville own the most stately victory eliminating United 2-1 in the finals later that year. Minotaurs enjoyed a 2-0 defeat of Enfield last week while Prospect came crashing back to earth with a 1-0 loss to Uni following their opening 5-2 win against Rovers.

Rydalmere Lions tackle Western Condors at Rydalmere Park on Sunday afternoon (3pm) and isn’t there quite a bit at stake! Title favourites Rydalmere were stunned 1-0 by Hurstville FC in the season opener and were also bundled from the Waratah Cup midweek with a 0-4 loss to Spirit FC, clearly there’s still a lion’s share of work to do. On the other wing Condors haven’t even got their campaign going after sitting out the first two rounds due to Sydney’s inclement weather, but they’d certainly love to avenge last year’s preliminary final loss to Lions. Before that the two sides played out two regular season draws – the same results when they met in the 2009 division one competition.

Enfield Rovers hope to get their season going against Southern Bulls at Garside Park on Monday afternoon (3pm) but they have a lot of work ahead of them. Enfield’s started the winter with losses to Uni and Minotaurs and hopefully they don’t take as long as last season to start winning games – eight straight defeats including a 1-0 loss to Bulls. Rovers got their revenge later in the season when a 4-0 hiding of Bulls sparked a golden run that took them within inches of a maiden finals berth, but they face an expectant Bulls outfit that soundly beat Southern Branch 5-0 in the opening weekend.

Waratah Cup/FFA Cup

Hurstville FC beat Southern Bulls 3-1 at Ernie Smith Reserve in last week’s Waratah Cup action to become just the second division two side to reach the fourth round in six years (Rydalmere Lions lost 0-4 to Spirit FC (SUPA IGA NPL NSW Mens 2) at Christie Park on Tuesday night). Hurstville carry the state league two flag when they face South Coast Wolves (IGA NPL NSW Mens 1) at Hooka Creek Park, Berkeley, on Wednesday night, April 23 (7pm).

-By Dan De Nardi