North should wrap up intrastate series in both men’s and women’s games
Preview of Intrastate Second-Leg Clash
By Walter Pless
The South will be without four key players when they take on the North in the return leg of the men’s intrastate soccer series at Windsor Park in Launceston at 2.30pm on Saturday.
Tilford Zebras players, striker Ben Crosswell, midfielders Aaron Brazendale and Ricky Self, and defender Andrew Telega are all with their club in Canberra this weekend for a match against a local ACT side.
South coach, Eamonn Kelly, said he would use players who were on the bench last weekend, as well as call up some members of the State Under-21 squad who are preparing for the games against the A-League youth sides next month.
North won last week’s first leg 4-0 and the South will be hard-pressed to win by five clear goals to clinch the two-match series.
“I think we can do it,” said Kelly. I’m not saying that to be smart.
“We probably played a couple of people out of position last week, but that was a necessity because if you haven’t got personnel you’ve got to persevere with what you’ve got.
“And that’s what we’ve done, and credit to the lads. I mean, we all copped a bit of a caning after last week, which is deserved, I suppose.
“But, we’ll bounce back this week.
“More than likely, I’ll be changing the keeper and Ben Peter may get a look in.
“We will be going back to playing two up front, and they will be Billy Gasparinatos and Danny White, and we might juggle a little bit with the midfield.
“The back-four will relatively stay the same, apart from the fact that David Cooper will be back in because he was away at a wedding last week, and that will give us a little more stability there.
“We don’t want to change things too much. We’ve been together long enough now to bounce back.
“The boys were all pretty devastated after last Saturday, as we all were, and as was I.
“We talked about it Saturday night and then we went to training on Monday and spoke about it on Monday and then, as far as we’re all concerned, it’s history, and it’s gone.
“We can’t change that. We can certainly build, and we will for Saturday’s game. We want to turn the result around.”
The North coach, Tom McGinn, was unavailable for comment and did not return calls.
The curtain-raiser will be the women’s match and South, which won the first leg 2-0, will need to be at its best to hold out North on its home territory.
North striker, Chelsea Smith, should have a greater impact this time and South will have to stop her if it is to have a chance.