NICOLAIDIS WARY OF WOUNDED OPPONENT

2016_02_18_Inglewood_training_7325Coach Taki Nicolaidis considers this weekend to be the worst possible time to come up against neighbouring Bayswater City.   Inglewood United has home ground advantage over Bayswater on Saturday in a game that brings together the National Premier Leagues’ top two teams.

Inglewood heads into the afternoon on top of the competition standings – albeit by a slender one- goal advantage – courtesy of back-to-back wins.   By contrast, Bayswater have taken one points from their last two games, and it’s for that very reason that Nicolaidis is wary of his next opponent.

“It’s probably the worst time to be playing Bayswater,” Nicolaidis commented.   “Coach Chris Coyne will have been in their ear for not picking up maximum points the last two weeks and he’ll have them doing overtime at training this week to get things right for the weekend.”

“As both ourselves and Bayswater have found out in the last month, things can change very quickly.   We were on top four weeks ago and a few weeks later we were five points behind, and they’ve experienced the same thing.   If you are going to be finishing in the mix you can’t afford to be dropping points to anyone.”

Victory on Saturday will give Inglewood a three-point lead over the chasing pack.   However, with just four points currently separating Inglewood, Bayswater, Stirling Lions and Perth SC, Nicolaidis says the title race isn’t even close to being over.   “There are another eight games and another 24 points to be played for,” he said.

“We’re quite lucky at the moment in as far as we’ve got a full squad that is fit, firing and pushing for spots in the team.   We’ve got to make sure that we maintain a healthy and competitive squad that is hungry to be successful.   The goal is to get the win over Bayswater this weekend and win the next seven games after that as well.”