Tasman seek united front
Tasman United want local football fans to help continue their perfect start to the season by offering the lowest ticket price possible.
The team’s first home game of the season kicks off against Southern United tomorrow at Trafalgar Park, with free entry for spectators.
The admission price will be the same when the two sides’ youth teams clash at the same venue on Saturday - also at 2pm.
Unbeaten after two games, Tasman lead the ISPS Handa Premiership with six points, having already accounted for Hamilton Wanderers and Canterbury United.
Both fans and players are hoping for a repeat of the 5-2 victory the home team inflicted on the Dunedin-based side in March.
Although last year’s crowd favourite, Argentinian Nicolas Abot and his confetti-throwing supporters, would be absent from the terraces this season, assistant coach and player Paul Ifill was confident the Nelson public would be in full voice come the weekend.
‘‘Obviously the start we’ve had [will help], the crowds certainly came out last year and we were pretty average for most of the season, so hopefully we get a few more on top of that this week.’’
Tasman United chairman Mark Sheehan said the initial premiership results had been indicative of the strong squad that had grown in confidence since the end of last season.
‘‘We’ve got a really good team this year – a lot of the other squads are rebuilding, especially some of those really good ones, so hopefully we can pinch a few points.’’
Mid-fielder Callan Elliot was looking forward to building on a solid start to the 2017/18 season which included scoring the winning goal last week against Canterbury to bring home the Mainland Challenge Trophy.
Just days away from from finishing his schooling at Rathkeale College, near Masterton, the 18-year-old said he was looking forward to spending more time in Nelson over summer after a weekly commute down from the Wairarapa.
He expected a tough encounter against Southern, based on what he had seen in a pre-season friendly hit-out on October 8.
‘‘They had some pretty good on attackers up front – they’re quite a hard-working team.’’