Jags to be mutually supportive

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

BOTH Gisborne Thistle travelling teams are away on Saturday, and playing close enough to supply reinforcements to each other.

ALH Gisborne Thistle will play Napier City Rovers Feds at Bluewater Stadium, Park Island, in a Central Federation League game at 1pm.

ALH Thistle Reserves will play City Rovers Prems in a Pacific Premiership match on Park Island No.4 at 3pm.

Nearly always, lower-graded games are played before the higher-graded fare, but the fact that Thistle's first team are playing before the reserves means that anyone not needed in the top side can be used in the second team.

Thistle head coach Garrett Blair said the status of some injuries was still uncertain this far out from the weekend, but the starting line-up would be something like Mitchell Stewart-Hill in goal; Daniel Venema and Ander Batarrita at rightback and leftback; Ryan Anderson and Kieran Venema as centrebacks; Ash McMillan and Nick Land as defensive midfielders; Cory Thomson as attacking midfielder; and Oska Smith, Cullen Spawforth and Leo Maisey as the frontrunners from right to left.

Substitutes would be Mark Baple, Alex Davies (if fit), Andre Riley and Sam Patterson.

Blair said Thistle were targeting this game as one to get points from.

“We know results haven't been going our way but, week on week, we are seeing positive strides being made,” he said.

“We're fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to play on Bluewater Stadium so the boys will be looking to use the width to our advantage.

“We've decided to drop Kieran Venema back into centreback to give our backline a bit more stability. We need to stop leaking goals and we hope this will be a way to do that.

“Kuba Jerabek has some bruising in his ankle joint, which probably puts him out of this weekend's action, although he will be seeing a physio and we may be able to get some minutes out of him.”

Sam Patterson would return to the squad after a week away, but Matt McVey was unavailable due to work.

This would be the last weekend of Jarom Brouwer's absence at a police training course.

“He will be a real asset to the squad,” Blair said.

Training sessions had been difficult to run effectively this year, due to reduced training space, wet weather and closed or restricted grounds.

Meanwhile, reserve team coach Craig Stirton is banking on receiving some help from the first-team squad for his team's game in the Pacific Premiership.

He said the 4-5-1 formation he used last week had worked well in their 1-1 draw with Napier Marist Prems, so he might use it again.

Stirton expected to have a squad of 12 or so, with perhaps two players who did not get much work for the first team in the earlier game.