EAST Armidale will be chasing their first Northern Inland Premier League grand final berth for well over a decade when they travel down the highway today to tackle North Companions in the preliminary final.
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“We haven’t made the grand final for 15 years,” Easts coach Mark Gwynne said.
They venture to Tamworth confident they can get the job done after just going down to Oxley Vale Attunga in the first week and then beating Gunnedah 5-3 last week.
But not too confident.
“They’ve (North Companions) been getting some good results,” Gwynne said.
The most recent was a 3-1 win over Northern Conference minor premiers Joeys in the first week of the finals.
It should be a cracker, with both sides playing similar styles.
“It’ll be a quick game,” Gwynne said.
“Both sides are quick with the ball.”
He believes whoever can keep the ball and knock it around the best will get the result.
“That’s the key any time. If one team’s got possession, the other team can’t score,” he said.
“If we can keep the ball on the ground and move it around like we have been doing...”
And not switch off.
They probably should have put seven goals away against Gunnedah.
The same in a couple of other games.
“We can’t switch off,” Gwynne said.
“We’re going to have to play for 90 minutes.”
Easts won their only meeting this year but aren’t getting carried away by that.
It was only 1-nil and back at the start of the season.
“Both teams have improved a lot since that game,” North Companions coach Gavin Thompson remarked.
“East Armidale will be a very difficult opponent.
“They’ve got quality players right throughout the team – in defence, the midfield and in attack.”
East’sgoalscorers last week, Lewis Russoniello and Hoani Morell, are two they’ll have to watch along with Naran Singh and last year’s Golden Boot winner Jake Davies.
“They play a good brand of football,” Thompson said.
“We’ll have to be on our game to get through.”
They don’t have to really change anything though.
“We just have to keep doing what we’ve done all year,” he said.
“Try to keep possession and try to spread the ball about.
“Both teams create a lot of chances.
It’s going to be who takes them who wins.”
He wasn’t sure whether or not they will be without anyone.
“We’ve got a bit of illness going through,” he said.
“A few players missed training.”
He also wasn’t sure about how the week off would affect them.
“I don’t really know if it’s an advantage or disadvantage,” he said.
“While it’s good to freshen up, you do miss a week of game play.”
They’ll play at Johnson Field, with OVA tackling Demon Knights in the other preliminary final at Ken Chillingworth Oval, both games kicking off at 3pm.