Western have point to prove against Gisborne Thistle

Gisborne Thistle welcome back the experienced Nicky Land from a lengthy injury lay-off for tomorrow's Central Federation League clash with FC Western in New Plymouth. Photo / Paul Rickard

Beware the wounded tiger.

Gisborne Thistle play FC Western in New Plymouth tomorrow, and the Taranaki side will be looking for redemption.

They lost to the Jags 4-2 in Gisborne on May 4 in a match that featured Jimmy Somerton’s hat-trick.

Electrinet Thistle showed big improvement on their previous games in Central Football’s Federation League, but Western coach Spencer Salt was not so impressed with his charges.

He said his team routinely played “with full intensity”, but in the four years he had been at Western the performance against Thistle was the “softest” he had seen. He looked forward to the arrival of three players on university sporting scholarships in the United States and Japan, and they would be available for the rest of the season.

In their next four league games they beat Taradale, drew with Palmerston North United, lost to Havelock North Wanderers and beat Palmerston North Marist.

Their last two games were Taranaki derbies, a 5-3 loss to New Plymouth Rangers and a 2-0 win against Peringa United.

They are now fourth in the nine-team league, three points behind Havelock North but with a game in hand, and will be eyeing a top-three placing that would give them automatic membership of the Central League 2 competition being introduced next year.

Thistle, meanwhile, have been hampered by injuries but their squad is being gradually strengthened.

Last week’s 6-0 loss to Palmerston North United was not surprising, given the extent of the injury list, but coach Tam Cramer said the team put together some promising play and were hurt by unforced errors.

This weekend Thistle have players returning from injury. Nick Land is back in the playing squad after an extended injury break and can fit in practically anywhere, while midfielder David Salmon and defender Shai Avni are also expected to be fit .

Defenders Jirah Wanoa and Daniel Venema, and midfielder Matt McVey are still out, but Cramer is encouraged by the extra playing strength.

“Last time we played them (Western), I thought we deserved our win,” he said.

“They’re a decent team, as most teams in this league are, but we’re certainly not scared of them. They’ll be fired up, but I’m more concerned about what we do. If we do what we do well, we’ll get three points. It’s up to us.”

Thistle are seventh on the table, with nine points from nine games, one point behind New Plymouth Rangers and two ahead of Whanganui Athletic.

When the Federation League programme is complete, the fourth- to seventh-placed teams go into one-off playoff games against Capital Premier/Capital 1 teams vying for Central League 2 places.

Thistle will be spared the long road trip to Taranaki this weekend. They fly to New Plymouth tomorrow morning and return on Sunday.