Winning feeling Southern’s key asset

For the first time in 13 months Southern United enters a game on the back of a win.

It was unfortunate the mid-season break came at precisely the wrong time, but  confidence is lingering from the 3-1 victory over Tasman United three weeks ago. That will be key as Southern begins the second half of its season against Hamilton Wanderers at Peter Johnstone Park today.

"It’s a little bit of a monkey off our back, getting that first win," coach Paul O’Reilly said.

"The lads had been feeling a bit of pressure because, although we felt like we deserved more points, it is tough when you haven’t won a game."

Despite being eighth on the table, Hamilton will be a far tougher opponent. It has a game in hand, which could be crucial in what is a congested table, and has won four of its eight games. In those wins, it has shown its goal-scoring pedigree, most recently beating Hawke’s Bay United 6-4. Last time the two teams met Southern dominated the second half, but lacked the finishing touch and went down 1-0. That became the story of the first half of the season, until the second half against Tasman, in which Southern combined a good showing with three goals.

"If we can put in a similar performance to [the one against] Tasman, we can hopefully pick up three more points.

"It won’t be easy. Hamilton are having a good first season. They’ve got some threats, some good players."

Southern would continue with its positive game plan, playing on the front foot and applying pressure to the ball, O’Reilly said. Those tactics had resulted in it creating plenty of chances in its past two games, but its lack of ability to put together a full 90 minutes had proved costly. Obtaining that consistency was a key goal for the second half of the season, with the team firmly focused on its performances, knowing that results would stem from playing well. However, he was still hoping to get off the bottom of the league table, O’Reilly said. Southern is on four points, one behind Tasman and eight behind Hamilton.

"We’re trying to take it every game as it comes. Our goal at the start of the year was to try to get out of the bottom. It’s been a long time since Southern has been out of the bottom two.

"That’s still a goal — we want to finish as high up the table as we can. Obviously, we want to pick up more wins than we have in the first half of the season, that goes without saying."

The team will be without defender Jude Fitzgerald, who has struggled all season with a hip injury and looks likely to miss several more weeks. There were some new faces, with several youth players and triallists being brought into the squad, although the match day team remains unchanged from the one which beat Tasman.

 

Southern v Hamilton
Peter Johnstone, today, 1pm

Southern United: Liam Little, Conor O’Keeffe, Stephen Last, Danny Ledwith, Eric Molloy, Michael Hogan, Harley Rodeka, Danny Furlong, Andy Mulligan, Sam Cosgrave, Andrew Ridden, Ross Howard, Tom Stevens, Sam Collier, Cam Higgins, Cam McPhail.

Hamilton Wanderers (from): Aaron Scott, Alexis Carcamo Varela, Bailey Webster, Cory Mitchell, Dylan Windust, Godwin Darkwa, Jack Salter, Jama Boss, Jonathan Konings, Jordan Shaw, Judd Baker, Kenta Nakashima, Marc Evans, Mark Jones, Matthew Oliver, Max Tommy, Noah Villiger, Raymond Gunemba, Regont Murati, Roussin Nkoy, Sam Redwood, Thomas Davis, Xavier Pratt.