Former Tech captain, defender Andrew Storer, has moved to Coastal this season, and Tech striker Garbhan Coughlan said he was looking forward to the contest.
Storer had marked Coughlan in training at Tech.
“It’s always good to play against good players,” he said.
“He was on our team for a bit, he’s now become sort of the enemy, so we have to focus on ourselves and, yeah, I’ll be relishing the challenge of coming up against him.”
They have started strong with a win and a draw, scoring 10 goals in the process.
American Alex Steinwascher has six of those to sit level at the top of the golden boot ranks – joined by Coughlan, who netted all of his goals in the 12-0 win over FC Twenty at the weekend.
Coughlan said he was expecting a tougher match than that.
“They’ll be their usual selves, they’ve always been sort of dogged and hardworking. They make things difficult for you, especially up at Linfield.
“They’ve added some good players, which is good to see. Obviously not so good when they’re taking them from us, but that’s football sometimes.”
Saturday’s matches see unbeaten Christchurch United host Universities – still chasing their first win at this level – while winless FC Twenty play a Nomads side coming off a good win over Dunedin City Royals.
Selwyn United play their first home game of the season against Nelson Suburbs, and Ferrymead Bays make the trip down to Dunedin to play the Royals.
