DEMON Knights will be remembering back to round 10 of the Northern Inland Premier League when they upset Joeys FC as they again prepare to take on the minor premiers in a round of elimination finals this afternoon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On that occasion Cal McGregor scored a brace in the 3-2 victory and DK vice-president Jay Westfold said the side had taken a lot of confidence out of that result and the way they have been performing over the past month.
“We had a really slow start to the season but have finished really well,” Westfold said.
The side was almost no chance of even making the finals, a last-round win and a South Armidale-Joeys FC draw just boosting them pass rivals South for a finals berth.
While that was a good result, it was the games leading up to it that changed the side from also-rans to premiership contenders, and a 3-nil win over Tamworth FC last week confirmed it.
Even the games that didn’t go their way were only lost by one goal as the club fought for their season every round.
“We struggled away from home early but our game has really come on in the later half of the season,” Westfold said.
“We knew if we could make the finals we would have a good chance of going all the way.”
“This is our first season in the finals for three years so the boys are excited and ready to go.”
Westfold believes the key to beating Inverell, who were beaten in the first game of finals by North Companions, is to never let the pressure off them, as well as heavily mark their captain-coach Jackson Haussler.
Haussler scored Joeys’ only goal in last week’s 3-1 defeat to have them leading at halftime and is also well out in front of the goalscorers’ tally with 17 for the season.
Norths United’s Declan Druitt is in second place with 14 while DK striker Josh Quaife ran into contention with a bevy of goals recently to be in third place with 12.
“Haussler only needs a sniff and he puts it away,” Westfold said.
“We need to be really tight in defence.”
DK will also feature in the reserve grade elimination finals this weekend, although they will remain in Armidale to play rivals East Armidale at Doody Park at 11am after sitting near the top of the table all year.
East Armidale will host Gunnedah United in the other first grade fixture at 1.30pm this afternoon at Doody Park while Tamworth clubs OVA and North Companions have the week off after qualifying for preliminary finals last week.
The two clubs will however clash in reserve grade today at Carter St with kick-off at 1pm.