Round 17 Preview – NPL 3 NSW Men’s
The season is well and truly flying by as we approach round 17 of the National Premier Leagues 3 NSW Men’s competition.
Round 17 proceedings will be almost identical to round 16 as we gear up for four fixtures on the Saturday before two Sunday matches complete what is sure to be another entertaining weekend of football.
We head to Pluim Park for our first round 17 fixture as Central Coast United prepare to take on Bankstown United at 5pm on Saturday night.
Pluim Park has acted as a fortress for Central Coast, they are undefeated there all season and enter this fixture on a high after they rescued a point against Bankstown City with a last minute equaliser.
Meanwhile, their opponents have been in sparkling form at home and on the road – well that was until last week as Inter broke their four match winning run.
It was a tight contest the last time these two sides went head to head with United coming out on top by the odd goal in five. A similar result this weekend will do wonders for their finals aspirations.
Making our way to Arlington Oval where we have a case of bottom hosting top as Inner West Hawks meet Rydalmere Lions at 7pm.
There is a sizable contrast between these two side’s fortunes this campaign. The ever-consistent Lions are riding high at the top of the ladder with 36 points to their name while the Hawks are propping up the table with four points to show.
Hawks managed to keep it to a respectable score line the first time they met with Rydalmere securing a 3-0 win.
Inter Lions FC will be making the trip to Heffron Park on Saturday as they prepare to do battle with Dunbar Rovers with kick off set for 7pm.
Both sides claimed wins in round 16, Inter got one over United while a clinical second half performance saw Dunbar steamroll Sydney Uni.
Dunbar’s wins have been few and far between but they do have the upper hand heading into this encounter given that they secured a 3-2 win at Majors Bay Reserve back in April.
But they will need to be wary of Inter who are definitely a side who play on confidence. It was not too long ago that they were celebrating a lengthy winning streak. That kind of run could be reoccurring as they seek their third win on the bounce come Saturday.
Bankstown City will be hoping to add to their four match unbeaten run when they entertain Macarthur Rams at Jensen Park on Saturday.
Last week’s stalemate up the coast would have felt like a defeat for Bankstown after they looked destined to take all three points until the final kick of the game.
They are still sitting pretty in second position and are in pole position to get the win as they return to Jensen Park.
However, this match will not be a write off with Macarthur one of the highest scoring sides despite their relatively low league position. They made their opponents work for it in the reverse fixture at Lynwood Park with 4-3 the final score.
We have two Sunday fixtures coming up in round 17, the first of those will be the clash between Sydney University and Canterbury Bankstown at Arlington Oval which is set to get underway from 3pm.
It was contrasting results for these two sides last weekend; Berries were ruthless against Magic as they claimed a 5-2 win while Uni wasted their lead and fell 5-3 at the hands of Dunbar.
That means that the 11th placed Berries could leapfrog Uni this weekend if they get the win and Dunbar fail to beat Inter.
Going back to their past meeting and it was Sydney Uni who edged out Berries with James Reed’s goal proving to be the match winner at the Crest.
Christie Park will be the venue for the second Sunday match which sees Gladesville Ryde Magic pitted against Dulwich Hill.
The visitors sit in third ahead of this meeting and are two places and six points better off than their hosts.
Magic could not muster up much of a reply to Berries last weekend as they had five put past them at Christie Park while on the other end of the scale, Dully inflicted the same number of goals on the Hawks.
The home side have quite a considerably inferior goal difference compared to the teams around them on the table and will not take comfort from the fact that they went down 4-0 to Dully at Arlington Oval in round six.
-By NPL 3 NSW Men’s Chief Writer Samuel Greco Schwartz (Twitter handle: @SamuelGS97)
