Heat’s on at new venue
Endeavour Park sure to be a crowd pleaser for Brisbane Olympic clash
ENDEAVOUR Park might not boast the surface of FNQ Heat’s regular home Barlow Park, but the move to the Manunda venue will be a win for those at tonight’s NPL Queensland clash.
The Heat host unbeaten leaders Brisbane Olympic, featuring one of the Far North’s favourite sons in Shane Steffanuto, in Round 6 of the competition in a reversal of roles from when the two teams met 12 months ago.
Campbell said he expected some exciting football for the fans to enjoy from both sides, such is the feel of Endeavour Park.
“It’s absolutely fantastic, because you’re so close to the pitch, so involved, you can hear the on-pitch communication and antics and it makes you feel involved totally,” he said.
“Barlow is by far a superior playing surface and you get a lot more quality passing going on at Barlow but as we all know it’s a bit far away, even though it’s a great stadium.
“At Endeavour the crowd feel part of it and the game last year ended up 5-4 so you usually see quite exciting games. It’s real compact and you feel as though you’re on the pitch with them.”
Campbell said his side had to try to put right last week’s result at Barlow Park and that meant shutting the play down early against a side that scored eight last week.
“They’re on top form this year, they’re doing really well and they’ve got a good style of play,” he said.
“A very effective team and they certainly know how to get on top of teams, and to be fair, they were the team that surprised us last year when they came up.”
Campbell said while Olympic had attacking quality, he knew a backline featuring for- mer Brisbane Roar A-League winner Matt Mundy and Cairns product Steffanuto would be much tougher to crack, making taking advantage of opportunities even more crucial. “I don’t think we’ll get as many chances against Olympic as we had against the other teams,” he said.
“Even against Moreton Bay last week we had three or four chances that last year we would have been putting away.
“This year we’re not and we really need to concentrate in on that.
“We do have some good training drills and the boys do look quite exceptional at training, but they’re got to put it out on that park as well.”