Round 18 – National Premier Leagues 3 NSW Men’s Preview
The heat has well and truly been turned up in the National Premier Leagues 3 NSW Men’s competition, with so many positional variables still possible given there are nine rounds of football remaining.
Teams that will focus on doing the little things well, and on applying themselves to the task at hand, week by week, will do well to rise above the pack and earn a spot in the coveted finals programme come season’s end.
In the meantime, we approach Round Eighteen with the usual trepidation that we do each week, knowing to expect the unexpected as the 14 clubs do battle.
The Round kicks off with six matches on Saturday spread across three different timeslots, whilst the remaining fixture will take place on Sunday afternoon.
Hensley Athletic Field plays host to the fixture between Dunbar Rovers and SD Raiders at 3pm, with both teams poised to make a strike at the top sides in this six pointer.
Raiders are on 30 points in 5th place on the ladder, whilst the Rovers are on 28 points in 7th – but Dunbar do have a game in hand. In fact, that game was postponed last weekend, so the Rovers will be fresh and eager to return to action on Saturday.
The first round encounter was a fiercely contested match, with seven yellows and red card issued. Raiders were victorious on that night on April 7, winning 4-2, and another win here will keep Dunbar at their heels whilst putting the pressure on the teams directly above them.
The Western NSW Mariners welcome the visit of Hawkesbury City to Lithgow on Saturday afternoon, with the match kicking off at Marjorie Jackson Field at 3pm.
Hawkesbury will be hurting after their 2-3 demise at the hands of Gladesville Ryde Magic last weekend, and as a result, the Hawks have dropped to 4th spot on the ladder. It’s not as bad as it sounds for Hawkesbury, because they are only 3 points off the top, so a win here will do nicely indeed for the visitors.
The Mariners come in to this game not having lost in the past fortnight – beating Granville Rage two weeks ago, and having last week’s game vs Dunbar postponed.
This is the second time that Hawkesbury have travelled to play the Mariners, having made the trek to Orange back in Round 5, and taking home a point in a 1-1 draw, with Brad Gibson netting for the Hawks whilst Kenny McCall scored for the home side.
The Hawks will be looking for maximum points this time around if they are to stay on the heels of the top three.
Two teams with contrasting fortunes of late go head to head at Garside Park on Saturday night, with Granville Rage meeting Sydney University at 5pm.
The Rage have had 1 win and 8 losses in their past 9 matches, plummeting in the process to 12th spot on the ladder on 15 points.
Sydney University on the other hand haven’t lost in 8 weeks, with 5 wins and 3 draws to their name in that period. As a result, the ‘students’ have climbed to the top of the bottom half of the ladder, and sit in 8th position on 24 points, with a real chance of giving the top five a shake if they continue this streak.
Sydney University won the corresponding first round fixture by 4-1 at Seymour Shaw Park, with a double from Tim Bowman, and a similar result looks likely this Saturday.
Dulwich Hill will be up against it at Arlington Oval on Saturday night when they welcome the visit of Gladesville Ryde Magic for a 7pm kick off.
Dully is in a rut at the moment, losing 4 and drawing 1 of their past 5 matches, dropping to 9th spot on the ladder in the process.
Magic on the other hand have had 4 wins and a draw in their past six matches, form that has seen them climb to the dizzy heights of equal 2nd on the ladder on 33 points, just 3 points from the summit.
Michael Gaitatzis cannot stop scoring for Gladesville, scoring 9 goals across 3 recent games, including a 4 goal haul against Granville and a hatrick versus Hawkesbury.
The first round match ended in a 1-1 stalemate, but Magic have more to gain this time from taking all three of three points, so expect a spirited display from them at Arlington.
League leaders, St George City FA, have a tricky encounter this Saturday night, taking on the visiting Inter Lions at Fraser Park at 7pm.
St George’s lead at the top has been whittled away to just three points given their recent reverse in form, with 2 losses and 1 draw in their past 4 matches. The league’s top scorers have forgotten how to find the net of late, remaining scoreless in the last two games, and will be hoping to rectify that quick smart and return to winning ways.
Inter Lions have hauled themselves in to 10th spot on the ladder, courtesy of their 4-1 drubbing of Dully last week. In fact, their positive form was already in motion by then, having been unlucky to lose narrowly by 1-2 the week before against Hawkesbury, and drawing 1-1 vs Dunbar before that.
The game between the two sides earlier this season – also at Fraser Park – was a thriller for the neutral, with St George winning 3-2 after Inter lead 2-1 at half time, and you can no doubt expect a similarly closely fought match this time around.
The programme of events loooks ominous for Stanmore Hawks this Saturday night when they travel to Ron Dine Stadium to meet Camden Tigers at 7pm.
The numbers say it all for Camden – 8 matches played, 8 wins, 31 goals scored, 7 conceded. The Tigers home form has seen them climb to 6th spot on 28 points, and they are ready to make another move upward this Saturday.
Stanmore Hawks come in to this clash with low morale given they became the first team to lose to bottom placed Fraser Park last weekend, so they will need to regroup very quickly if they are to avoid the same fate as the previous 8 teams who have travelled to Ron Done before them.
The writing looks on the wall for Fraser Park on Sunday when they travel to Potts Park to take on Bankstown City at 2pm.
Bankstown are 2nd on the ladder on 33 points, with a game in hand on first placed St George City FA, and are coming in to this match on a real high given their 1-0 win over City last weekend.
Fraser Park are themselves on a high, having won their first game last weekend with a 3-2 triumph over Stanmore Hawks, moving the club to one point from second last.
It would be a brave person to tip against a Bankstown City win here, but football is a funny game. Twelve months ago in this very same competition, Rydalmere Lions defeated Fraser Park in a top of the table clash, and then lost soon after to the then bottom placed Mariners, so Bankstown City would be foolish to take this game lightly.
