"And we're also going to give my youth club player Jordan Vlaanderen, a real prospect, an opportunity, and take him on the bench."
Although, "God forbid" the glove men's injury curse continues and Slade has to leave the box, Francis does not believe the youngster Vlaanderen would struggle too much, and being with the 1sts is a chance to listen and learn.
The one they have to watch will be Hokowhitu's Nick Carrick, who picked up two goals in the 3-2 loss on their trip to Wembley last weekend against GJ Gardner Homes Wanganui Athletic.
Carrick moved clear to the undisputed top of the Golden Boot standings with 12 goals this season, ahead of North End's Nathan Cooksley who stayed on 10 after last weekend, while Athletic's Quinn Mailman moved up to nine with his second half strike against Hokowhitu.
Goalkeepers aside, Francis has a rare wealth of other options to fill up his bench with Anthony Bell, Cameron Hussey and Josh Jonas all able to return.
"Last week we had two subs and in ten minutes we were down to one sub."
Bell will get a reprieve as Francis wanted to start the same players who delivered the upset 3-2 win over New Plymouth Rangers, however matchwinning goal scorer Josh Ngapeka has a family commitment.
Bell will still start out wide rather than in the middle of the park as double goalscorer Jake Lockett and Max Davidson had a strong game together, with Lockett not having rugby commitments with his Marist Buffalos team on a bye week.
Meanwhile, Alex Judd-Nuttall is doubtful after he fell off the deck of a truck onto the same leg where he had ankle surgery last year to insert multiple pins and screws for a football injury in England.
Francis has sat down with the video tape to watch footage of City's gutting 6-3 loss to Hokowhitu in the first round of games on April 28, a match he couldn't attend due to his brother's wedding, and where his side completely surrendered a 3-1 halftime lead.
"We're not letting that happen again," said Francis.
"We switched off in the second half, didn't pick up the wide runners."
Meanwhile, Athletic would be happy to match their April effort when they head down to Palmerston North to meet Massey, who they hammered 6-0 at Wembley.
However, now with a 4-3-2 record with Athletic representing one of only two Massey defeats, Athletic coach Jason King is expecting a little more from the home side.
"Donald [Piper] will have a plan for us. We've just got to do the basics right.
"Hopefully we're picking up the momentum we that we did this time in the first round."
Unfortunately, once again this season an Athletic away game coincides with school ball season, so a handful of King's younger players are unavailable.
Nonetheless, he has been able to pick up a couple of Athletic expats who are now studying at Massey to sit on the bench.
Mailman picked up a hatrick in the previous sides meeting and a repeat performance would definitely help his Golden Boot status.
However, while King says Mailman is always hungry, they don't need to be a one-trick team with several attacking players capable of getting on the scoresheet, including Kelvin Hove who returns for this match.
"We should have guys up top who can bang those goals away for us."
Both matches start at 2.45pm.
In other games, the GJ Gardner Homes Wanganui Athletic Reserves are off to Donnelly Park to meeting Levin AFC in the Horizons Premiership at 2.45pm today, while tomorrow Football Whanganui host Taradale AFC in a GR Engineering Women's Federation League match at Wembley Park, kickoff 1pm.
Meanwhile, representative senior football will be returning to Whanganui in September with Central Football giving the go ahead for an experimental Football Wanganui 'Invitational' XI to play four games.
The squad, which will be co-coached by King and Francis, will play Hawke's Bay in two away matches, and then Manawatu in home and away games.
If the side is competitive, it is possible a fulltime Wanganui senior team will be added into the Central Football schedule.
The local game has had no male representative level above the Under 16 grade in some time.
