Tamworth FC will be out for revenge when they take on North Companions on Saturday as the Northern Inland Premier League marks the start of the second round.
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North Companions took the points 3-1 in their earlier meeting on their way to establishing a foot in the top four.
“You don’t like getting beaten in local derbies,” FC coach Greg Bartlett said.
It is a potentially season-defining clash for his side, which currently sit in fifth.
“We need a win. We’ve lost three in a row,” he said.
“We can’t afford to drop the points again tomorrow or we’ll start to drift away.”
Predicting a typically tough encounter against a North Companions side smarting from a last outing hammering from Oxley Vale Attunga, Bartlett said there is no reason his side can’t win.
“It’s the same old story for us. We’re creating chances but not finishing,” he said.
He’s hoping changing things up a bit might address that.
“We’ve changed our formation from what we’ve been playing,” he said.
They’ve gone back to a more traditional format and have also swapped a few players around as they look for “more cooler heads up front”.
“It will be interesting to see if the changes work,” he said.
They were going to try them out last week but then the game was washed out.
The other three round eight games will all be played in Armidale with East Armidale hosting Oxley Vale Attunga, newly-installed competition leaders North Armidale taking on Inverell Joeys and Demon Knights facing South Armidale.
