Match of the Round
Thornton Redbacks FC v Kahibah FC
Maitland Number 1 Sportsground, Saturday 5pm
This weekend’s Match of the Round will be contested at Maitland Number 1 Sportsground where the Thornton Redbacks will host Kahibah.
Four teams head into round eight coming off a win with Thornton and Kahibah are two of them.
The Redbacks had a bye during the Easter long weekend after they scored a 4-1 victory away from home against Wallsend in round six.
Kahibah has won back-to-back matches 4-1 against West Wallsend on the road and 4-0 against Singleton Strikers at home.
Thornton has surprised everyone so far this season, especially themselves. They are second on the table with 11 points and have a game in hand on league leaders Belmont Swansea.
Redbacks coach Gerard Carey said that he and fellow co-coach Gary Wand had been pleased with what they have seen from their side across their opening six matches and now want them to put in a full 90-minute performance on Saturday evening.
“We trained very hard on Tuesday night, but there is a weather event coming in, so we might get them on a hard-surface playing area and do some video and whiteboard work,” Carey said.
“We expect Kahibah to get at us this weekend. I think we are hard to score against, so it’ll be a good matchup.
“We’ll stick to our plan. We’re developing a team pattern of play and a philosophy that is based around our defensive shape. We’re not embarrassed to say we’re a counter-attacking team. It works for the playing roster we have.
“We’re pleasantly surprised so far with how we’re going. We picked up a couple of guys who are doing a job in the front third, and we’re still finding the balance of coaching them to our style and yet giving them the freedom to express themselves.
“We don’t want to see a lot different going forward, but we just want everybody to be switched on for the full 90 minutes for what we want to do.”
Thornton is hopeful to have everyone on deck for Saturday’s match, but the availability of Diego Cerda (quad) and Jaryd Abbot (hamstring) is still unknown.
Kahibah’s start to the season has taken a positive turn in recent weeks. They lost their first three matches despite playing quality football in patches, but they have put away four goals in each of their past two matches to pick up six points and rise to seventh on the table.
Kahibah also has a game in hand, which if they had played and won, they would be sitting in fourth spot.
Coach Mat Moncrieff could not have been any happier with Kahibah’s performance on Easter Monday when they kept their first clean sheet of the campaign in a 4-0 victory over Singleton at Kahibah Oval.
Moncrieff said it was great to see that his team is improving each week and he wants to see them build on that against one of the form teams of the competition.
“We get to play out on Maitland Number 1 field, which is exciting. It’s a good deck and will suit us,” Moncrieff said.
“Thornton looks like they are a different team to what they were in previous years. They have got some attacking threats and they are second on the table, so they’re a team to be beaten.
“We are a work in progress and each week we are getting better, so hopefully we can continue what we’ve done in the last two games.
“We’ve been creating a heap of chances lately, which is where we were last year but not scoring them and relying on our defence to get over the line. Our good defence is back now and we are starting to hurt teams with our attacking weapons and taking our chances.
“Hopefully we just keep getting better each week and we can string a few more wins together.”
This fixture kicks off a run of three games in nine days for Kahibah, with their rescheduled round six match against Cessnock to be played at Turner Park next Wednesday night ahead of their round nine clash at home against Wallsend a week from Sunday.
Cessnock City Hornets FC v Toronto Awaba FC
Turner Park, Saturday 2:30pm
Round eight will kick off at Turner Park on Saturday afternoon when Cessnock City Hornets welcome Toronto Awaba to Turner Park.
It is a huge opportunity for the home side to continue what has been an impressive turnaround following a dreadful start to the campaign.
The Hornets lost their first three matches a combined 16 goals to four, but in their two matches since they have scored their first win of the year and also pushed last season’s grand finalists South Cardiff all the way to full-time in a 2-1 loss.
Cessnock has also progressed in the Australia Cup preliminary rounds following a penalty shootout victory against Thornton last Wednesday night.
The Stags would be Cessnock’s biggest scalp of the season if they can get the job done. Their coach Brad Miles was hopeful of having a full-strength team to choose from as Blake Roy returns to the starting lineup after playing 25 minutes off the bench last Saturday in his return from injury.
Toronto Awaba is winless in their past two matches as a 6-0 home loss against Belmont Swansea and a 2-2 draw away from home against West Wallsend saw a three-game winning streak come crashing down.
The Stags are determined to return to the winner’s circle on Saturday, but they will be without a few key players. Captain Zane Winslade is sidelined for four to six weeks with a fractured foot, while teammates Noah Fittler and Reece Green are out suspended and Nick Roberts is away on holiday.
The side’s leading goal-scorer Jarrod Purcell missed last Thursday’s game with an ankle injury and coach Jarrad Hiles is hopeful he will return to face Cessnock to boost them in the front third.
No matter who lines up for Toronto Awaba though, Hiles is expecting a tough clash against a Cessnock outfit that he predicts will put up a tough battle.
“We’ll stick to our guns and the way we play no matter who’s available,” Hiles said.
“Everyone knows their roles and how we like to play.
“It will be a tough match. I like Cessnock. Brad’s a good coach and it’s always hard up there. It looks like they’ve got a bit more depth up there this year and some of the players they’ve recruited are good, experienced players.”
This fixture is the third in a run of four consecutive home games for the Hornets, the fourth of which is their rescheduled round six match against Kahibah at Turner Park next Wednesday night.
Singleton Strikers FC v South Cardiff FC
Howe Park, Saturday 2:30pm
Singleton Strikers will finally play on home soil at Howe Park for the first time this season when they welcome South Cardiff to town on Saturday afternoon.
The fixture kicks off a run of four straight home games at the venue for the Strikers, which they will hope brings with it a run of positive results.
Momentum is something that the Singleton side has been unable to build so far this season. They are yet to string two wins together back-to-back, and in the two games they have played following wins this year, they have been outscored seven goals to none.
The Strikers sit fifth on the table with seven points following a 4-0 loss away from home against Kahibah on Easter Monday. They were fourth heading into round seven but were overtaken by this Saturday’s opponents, the South Cardiff Gunners.
South Cardiff lost three of their first four games this season but enter this weekend’s clash on a two-game winning streak. They are fourth on the table with nine points following three wins and three losses, and the big challenge for them is to shore up their defence.
The Gunners have conceded seven more goals than they have scored across the first seven rounds and they are yet to keep a clean sheet in 2024.
A close contest is likely to be on the cards at Howe Park on Saturday. While 2023 form is well and truly in the rear-view mirror, these two sides met four times last season and were separated by just one goal on all four occasions.
West Wallsend SFC v Belmont Swansea United FC
Johnston Park, Saturday 4:30pm
Johnston Park will host another highly-anticipated clash this Saturday when defending champions West Wallsend host undefeated ladder leaders Belmont Swansea United.
BelSwans have blown the rest of the competition out of the water across the first seven rounds of the season and now look to make a statement against last season’s grand final winners before they sit out with the round nine bye.
The boys from Blacksmiths have won all seven games this season and have accumulated a maximum 21 points so far. They are 10 points clear of Thornton and Toronto Awaba who are second and third on 11 points.
For Belmont Swansea, this season was always going to be about getting back to where they feel they belong following an eighth-place finish in 2023. But never in their wildest dreams would they have predicted that they would have surpassed last season’s goal-scoring tally by March.
BelSwans scored 36 goals in 24 games in 2023 and they have already netted 39 times in seven matches in the 2024 campaign.
Coach Mick Stafford said that he and his players would not get ahead of themselves despite their dominant start to the campaign and they were full of respect for their round eight opponents.
“I expect a very tough game out there at Wembley. It’s a tough place to go,” Stafford said.
“They are the champions from last year and we’ve got to respect the fact they are the champions.
“We’ll put our best foot forward and we’ll see if we can get a result.”
As for the side’s sensational form in front of goal so far this season, the BelSwans boss credited that to the hard work and application his players have put in at training each week and he encouraged them to keep it up.
West Wallsend’s struggles in front of goal so far this season have been well-documented, but it is the other end of the field that will be under the microscope on Saturday.
The Bluebells have only kept one clean sheet in six matches so far this season and they have conceded 10 goals in their past three games.
Coach Bailey Cox said that he was pleased with his side’s improved efforts and urgency in defence after last Thursday’s 2-2 draw against Toronto and thought they had eradicated the mistakes they had been making in previous weeks.
But Cox knows that his side will need to be even better this weekend when they meet a side that is banging in goals for fun.
“I want to see similar to what we put out on Thursday night; a heap of effort, a heap of commitment, and everyone doing their job,” Cox said.
“We know BelSwans are flying. From what I’ve heard, they are really good at taking their chances, so we are going to have to work real hard in defence.
“I don’t need to say too much to our boys about the way we play with the ball; we’ve been quality. We just need a mighty effort in defence.”
Wallsend FC have the bye.
