Southern wants to show it has progressed

Paul O’Reilly
Paul O’Reilly
Southern United has a point to prove at Sunnyvale tomorrow.

The club is hosting the Phoenix Reserves and it is an opportunity to demonstrate how far the team has come since its 2-2 draw in Wellington in November.

Southern was not happy with the way it played in that match. The home team had the better of the opening 70 minutes but the visitors rallied in the final stages to clinch a draw.

Southern coach Paul O’Reilly sees the fixture as a tricky encounter but has also targeted the game as a must-win.

"The Phoenix are difficult to prepare for, because you don’t know who you are going to be playing against," O’Reilly said.

"With the way they are structured as a club they can drop players down [from the A-League].

"But look out, we’ll be after a bit of revenge. We had a good finish up there with a 2-2 draw and probably should have won, so we will be looking for a better performance to have a better chance of getting a positive outcome.

"Depending on who they put out on the park, it is certainly one of those games which, at this stage of the year, is, let’s not kid ourselves, a must-win.

"We need to get three points on the back of two defeats."

There will be no Danny Furlong to help out this weekend or any other weekend. The Irish striker was released earlier in the week after signing a two-year deal with Galway United.

Fellow Irish forward Garbhan Coughlan will push a bit further up field in Furlong’s absence.

He broke a bone in his arm and has played in a bandage for the last two weeks. But it has been removed and he will not look like he his playing with a "sock" on his arm any more, O’Reilly joked.

"We lost a good goal scorer but Garbhan has been a regular scorer for us as well, so I think he will do quite a god job.

"It is a massive loss for us. Danny is 28 and he has scored over 100 career goals at national league level ... and you can’t replace players of that quality.

"But I’ve said all year the squad, in general, has more strength this year. He got an unbelievable offer and we couldn’t stand in the way of that."

Tom Connor and Tim McLennan are unavailable this weekend but centre back Kristian Gibson returns from suspension to strengthen the defence which leaked three goals against Team Wellington on Sunday.

Southern (15 points) is in eighth place but can move into sixth place with a win. The team is aiming for a top-six finish and O’Reilly is hopeful his side will achieve its goal.

"That is still the target. The way the league has worked this year, is it is way tighter and there seems to be way more competitiveness in terms of teams taking points off one another.

"We need to pick up as many points as we can and breaking the 20-point barrier would be a big achievement for us."

 

Southern United v Phoenix Reserves
Sunnyvale, 2pm

Southern United: Liam Little, Conor O’Keeffe, Kristian Gibson, Stephen Last, Danny Ledwith, Omar Guardiola, Jared Grove, Garbhan Coughlan, Tom Stevens, Andy Ridden, Hamish Cotter, Nick Treadwell, Alex Ridsdale, Liam Clissold. Two to be added.

Phoenix Reserves (possible): Tando Velaphi, Jacob Williams, Liam Moore, Ollie Whyte, Willem Ebbinge, Sam Sutton, James McGarry, Oliver Sail, Owen Smith, Benjamin Waine, Logan Rogerson, Kurtis Mogg, Noah Tipene-Clegg, Jackson Manuel, Oscar Spragg, Oscar Browne.

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