Football: Caledonian, stadium come into play this weekend

Dunedin's best pitches will be used for Footballsouth matches this weekend.

Both early and late games are being played at the Caledonian Ground, and Invercargill Old Boys plays University at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Women's football will also use the stadium when Dunedin Technical plays Roslyn-Wakari. Games will also be played at Ellis Park and at Mosgiel.

Entry to the stadium will be by gold-coin donation and a charge will be made for car parking.

The top clash will take place at Ellis Park, where Roslyn-Wakari meets league leader Green Island, a week after the Island's unbeaten run ended when it was beaten 4-2 by Northern in the Chatham Cup.

Green Island, with its cup campaign over, now has to concentrate on the league, and this match will show whether last week's first loss of the season was a mere hiccup.

Roslyn has improved from a weak start and has had to draw on club depth, since several first-team players have not been not available.

But in a show of depth, Roslyn coach Colin Thom has used the energy, fitness and attacking attitude of non-strikers such as Fraser Cameron and Damian Foster to spearhead his attack, with willing support from an equally industrious midfield.

Cameron and Foster have scored nine goals between them, while more specialised strikers, Caversham's Ant Hancock and the Green Island pair of Joel Stevens and Taylor McCormack, have netted five each.

The early game at the Caledonian features Dunedin Technical playing Northern. Technical enjoys a five-point lead over Northern, but that side enjoyed a morale-boosting cup win last week, with big striker Angus Milne looking in marauding form.

Technical, after a week off, will be fresh and raring to go, but this season's goal tally (seven) is about half that of its rival, and it could do with some striker's form emerging from Alistair Rickerby.

University clashes with Old Boys in the 2.45pm game at the stadium, with the students still smarting over their 3-2 loss to Roslyn, although coach Luiz Uehara is still confident his side is playing better football each week.

Old Boys lost a couple of imports recently but still had enough firepower to beat Queenstown 4-2 in the league, and Mosgiel 2-0 in the cup. In-form strikers for Old Boys are Baraa Toubat, Robbie Goodwillie and Jack Boland, with two goals each, and in Chris Marsh, Old Boys has a top goalkeeper.

Mosgiel, out of the cup and with just one win in the FPL, needs to use its home advantage at Memorial Park to take points from second-bottom Queenstown, but the Central Otago side may shock, if scoring machine Carlos Hermann is allowed space in front of goal.

After snatching a 1-0 win over Waihopai last week, with a stout defensive display and an opportunist goal, Grants Braes faces a sterner test at the Caledonian Ground against Caversham.

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