Threat looms

Cairns to go on defence against dangerous opponent

A FAMILIAR foe is back to be a menace for Cairns FC coach Danny Graystone and as predictable as he may be, a switched-on defence will be crucial to stifling MagpiesCrusaders FC’s biggest threat this weekend.

Kyle Markham once terrorised Graystone’s previous clubs in South Australia and the classy No.9 has done the same in the Queensland NPL with five goals in seven games this season.

But discipline has always been his downfall – he’s attracted four yellow cards already in 2018 – and the way to make it happen is to frustrate him out of the contest.

“I’ve had a few run-ins with Kyle in South Australia,” Graystone said.

“He gets a lot of bookings and red cards, but I wouldn’t consider him a dirty player. He just gets a bit fired up and goes in late every now and again.

“From the few games I’ve watched, when you’ve got a man like Kyle upfront, you’d be silly not to use him and they do use him quite a lot.

“He’s very dangerous, but if you stay tight to him, he does get frustrated and when he does get frustrated he tends to watch the game rather than playing it

“We’ll definitely be shielding him a little bit with Bronson Koppen in there, our defensive midfielder.”

Graystone expected Brisbane-based clubs to start seeing Cairns FC as a serious threat in the NPL title race with a win in Mackay and urged his side to think about where they want to be before underestimating their rivals.

“If we can go and take three points from Mackay, I think people are going to start taking notice,” he said.

“It’s a really difficult game for us this weekend. Mackay is fighting for points, they’re down in the bottom two, but ... they’ve put in some really good performances.

“We’ve got a couple of very difficult games coming up after Mackay so it’s important we go into this with the right mindset to get three points. We know we’re capable of doing it.”