In-form South Canterbury club Northern Hearts will be hoping to continue its fine Chatham Cup run when it clashes with a strong Otago University team at the Caledonian Ground today.
Hearts has had solid victories over Queenstown Rovers and Mosgiel in its first two cup outings, and has swept aside teams in the South Canterbury competition with ease, with six wins from as many games and a healthy goal difference of 36.
A mix of wily experience from veteran striker Todd Burtenshaw and the deceptive skills of Ant Hancock and the strong running of Rowan Hewson has given every opposition defence headaches so far this season.
Hearts player-coach Matt Chambers, a goalkeeper, also praised defensive kingpins Ricky McLeod and Nigel Clemett, who have given opposition attackers few chances in front of goal this season, with only three goals conceded in eight games.
With University coach Luiz Uehara in Brazil, the students will be supervised by goalkeeper Jeferson Potrich. University has improved over recent seasons and some of the students represented Southern United in the summer, picking up invaluable experience.
The other cup tie at Tahuna Park throws 1999 Chatham Cup champion Dunedin Technical against a relatively unknown Pleasant Point club that sits third in the South Canterbury league.
The Danny Johnston-coached team will be motivated by dreams of a David v Goliath upset in true cup football tradition.
Pleasant Point will look to pacy striker Eddie Iraia to make the most of any chances, and to veteran midfielder Barry Austin to maintain possession with his good technique and composure on the ball.
Technical will start with a settled line-up and will be looking for an early goal from leading scorer Taylor McCormack to knock the visiting side off its stride.
Both Hearts and Point have had a disrupted build-up to the cup ties, with grounds being unplayable this week due to heavy rain.
In FootballSouth Premier League matches, Mosgiel will host Roslyn-Wakari at Memorial Park, while league leader Caversham will clash with Green Island at Sunnyvale.
Queenstown Rovers and Northern will have the weekend off because of their respective fixtures against University and Dunedin Technical being moved to the end of the season.
