City coach wary of giant killer

Kyle Graham-Luke and his City team want to polish off Feilding United to finish the first round of the Premiership unbeaten. PHOTO: Sharon Francis

The undefeated Big Orange Wanganui City 1sts have to remain eager to sweep the board today as they face their final unknown for the 2017 Horizions Premiership against Feilding United at Wembley Park.

With seven straight wins and an extraordinary for/against goal record of 40-1, the sixth placed Feilding with their 3-4 record should not represent a serious threat to City closing out the first round with maximum points.

However, coach Kelvin Francis has retained a healthy dose of skepticism considering Feilding held the other title contenders Hokowhitu to a narrow 1-0 win at Timona Park last Saturday.

"It makes me wonder, were Feilding tough or were Hokowhitu not on their game?"

Wanting his players fresh, Francis ran a relatively fun Tuesday night training session of 'football volleyball' before getting back into more serious preparations on Thursday.

He has been a victim of too many Feilding ambushes in the past to take them lightly.

"They always have [lifted], they've been one of those teams where you're going [home] thinking, 'how did that just happen'?"

"We need to continue to do what we did well.

"I'm even mentioning to the boys, 'Red Sox won't be easy next week either'. But they say, 'aw, we beat them 8-0'."

Michael Lewis has put home six goals for the visitors this season, while Ifan Bliss-Bennett (4) and Mitchell Thomas (2) have all the rest.

Meanwhile, 12 players in the City lineup have gotten on the score sheet, led by Anthony Bell with eight, although the transfer of both Jamie Lambe and Jordan Joblin-Hall to PN Marist's Central League team created a reshuffle.

The only other absentee is Josh Jonas, who brought Francis a medical photo showing "half a tennis ball on each side of his ankle".

Ligaments still have to be tested but Jonas may not return for another month at least.

Otherwise the team will be the same as started in the 7-0 win over Levin last week, unless Francis decides this morning to promote a bench player to keep everyone honest.

"It's nice to put out a back-to-back lineup."

Meanwhile, with Devon Homes Athletic 1sts on the bye week, Jason King is looking forward to giving his full attention to the GVCA Wanganui Athletic Reserves against Massey Celtic at the university grounds.

King still ran focused sessions for both squads this week, given the 1sts have their rivals New Plymouth Rangers coming up.

"We were looking a some of the things we need to sharpen up on - finishing is one of them."

The last time King could watch the Reserves in person was their 2-2 comeback draw with Breakers RSM Rovers at Skoglund Park, although he had to dash off quickly to re-join the 1sts team.

"It was great to be able to be there a couple of weeks ago to impart what I could for the game plan.

"It's good to remind them they're an important part of the club and the [wider] squad as well."

The ideal for King against the winless Celtic will be for Reserves to work towards a consistent 90 minute effort, after they gave up a big lead which just couldn't quite be run down in the 4-3 loss at home to Palmerston North Boys High last weekend.

"While the fight back was good, we can't rely on fight backs.

"It's about shoring things up, seeing what's going on, and got a few guys in there for the experience."

After making his comeback from concussion for the 1sts last weekend, Quinn Mailman will drop down for the weekend to get some more game time, as does the 1sts goal keeper.

Both Horizions Premiership games kickoff at 2.45pm.