Men’s State League 2 Round 15 Preview
With only one month of football remaining, the competition is heating up as each point earned, continues to prove crucial to the finals make up.
For this week’s Match of the Round, we see a must-win match for both University of NSW and the Western Condors if they are to keep their finals hopes alive.
University of NSW vs Western Condors FC, 3pm Saturday 25 July, David Phillips Field (Match of the Round)
Seventh-placed University of NSW will host sixth-placed Western Condors FC after both teams had the week off due to washouts.
The Western Condors lie only one win outside of the five while University of NSW trail their opponents by only one point.
They [University of NSW] will be seeing this weekend as a great opportunity to leapfrog the Condors and potentially find themselves just one point behind fifth-placed Prospect.
University of NSW will need to contain one of the competition’s best attacking weapons, Mauricio Navarrete, who still leads the goal scoring on 14, despite playing only nine matches this season.
Wagga City Wanderers vs Hurstville FC, 3pm Saturday 25 July, Gissing Oval
The Wagga City Wanderers will host Hurstville FC after coming off a narrow 4-3 defeat to the Hurstville City Minotaurs last week.
Scott Dunn had a great game for the Wanderers and was deserving of his two goals.
For Hurstville FC, they proved last week against the Camden Tigers that getting off to a good start plays a big role in the end result.
They [Hurstville FC] have however, conceded three goals in the last fifteen minutes played of both Rounds 13 and 14, while Wagga’s inspiring two goal effort in the dying moments against the Minotaurs highlighted their never say die attitude.
This game could be won or lost in those important, final passages of play.
Prospect United vs Southern Districts SFA, 5pm Saturday 25 July, William Lawson Park
Prospect United will come up against Southern Districts at home on Saturday for our third fixture of the round.
Prospect will have mixed feelings after last week’s nil-all draw to competition leaders, Dunbar Rovers.
Despite sharing the points, Prospect would have been disappointed that they could not capitalise further by picking up all three points away, against an under-strength Dunbar side.
For Southern Districts, they have had a disrupted last few weeks after a washout and a weekend off during the catchup round, has seen them play only one match since late last month.
They will be itching to get out onto the field to stake their claim as one of the teams to beat coming into the finals.
Camden Tigers vs Dunbar Rovers, 7pm Saturday 25th July, Ron Dine Reserve
The last Saturday match of the round features a top four clash between the Dunbar Rovers and the Camden Tigers.
Dunbar remains the only team to still be undefeated this season after drawing with Prospect United nil-all last week.
They are missing five of their regular starting 11 which has given opportunities to their under 20s players, such as John Niyonsaba and Dylan Deep-Jones, who have both been impressive.
Despite Camden going down to Hurstville FC 2-1 at home last week., head coach Dean Mackechnie would have been impressed with the effort they put in after conceding two early goals.
Once they get a win, they often go on a roll, which can be seen by their three game and five game winning streaks throughout the season.
No doubt they would want to get back into the winning circle, starting this week, to cement their spot in the top five.
FC Gazy Lansvale vs Hurstville City Minotaurs, 3pm Sunday 26 July, Progress Park
Two teams that will not be affected by finals football square off on Sunday at Progress Park.
FC Gazy Lansvale have not played since Round 13 after last week’s scheduled match against the Western Condors FC was postponed due to the weather.
The week before they went down to the hands of Southern Districts 4-2, despite getting off to a fantastic two-nil lead in the opening minutes of play.
For the Minotaurs, they fall into the similar habit of letting their opponents back into the match after starting games well.
This match can go either way. It will come down to which team can concentrate for the longest period of time.
– By Lars Roy, Men’s State League 2 Reporter
