Leap of faith in City’s Cup tilt

GOLD Coast City are placing their faith in the healing powers of star striker Jarrod Kyle in the big Westfield FFA Cup clash tomorrow night.

Kyle sustained his third career shoulder dislocation playing for City against Western Pride on August 12.

The confident spearhead subsequently missed City’s 3-0 loss to Moreton Bay United last weekend in the final round of the NPL Queensland.

Kyle is prepared to use painkillers to play in a clash which pits the Piddick brothers Grae (City) and Adam (Moreton Bay) against each other for the second time in four days at Wolter Park in Albany Creek.

Grae Piddick said Kyle was likely to return to the side as City try to emulate their feats of 2014 when they made the FFA Cup quarter-finals.

“We’re expecting Jarrod to play,” Piddick said, anxious to restock his playing list in the absence of Jacob Boutoubia (knee) and creative playmaker Nik Mirkovic, who is overseas on business and will miss the important clash.

Kyle was expected to train last night to prove his fitness but was extremely confident he would be all right.

“It has pulled up a lot better than I expected,” Kyle said.

“I’ll have a needle and should be right.”

Boutoubia, Piddick said, is highly unlikely to play again this season after re-injuring I

V7.30PM TOMORROW, WOLTER PARK FFA CUP ROUND OF 16

the knee he had a reconconstruction done on last year.

As City work on ways to find their goalscoring mojo following blank sheets in their past two fixtures, the spotlight is on who may come into the side to add firepower, and pace.

Players in the frame are Ben Lyvidikos and Riley Dillon.

“We could definitely do with more speed,” Piddick said.

“Ben is definitely quick and Riley is sharp enough.”

But Piddick conceded Mirkovic would be a loss.

“We just have to play with what we’ve got,” he said.

Coomera will begin the fight for their Gold Coast Premier League survival in a promotion-relegation battle against Nerang at Viney Park in Coomera tonight.

Under new competition formats drawn up by Football Gold Coast recently, the top two sides from second-tier Coast League 1 have been automatically promoted to Premier League.

The PL’s bottom side Coomera now have to play the third-placed CL1 side in a home-and-away battle for the 10th PL spot for 2018.

The second leg of the playoff is set for Nerang’s Glennon Park on Saturday.