Defence best form of attack for Southern
A STRONG defensive presence is how Southern United is hoping to lay its platform this season.
It will certainly need all of its defensive prowess as it gets its national football premiership season under way on Sunday.
A trip to Christchurch awaits, the side travelling to play one of last year’s frontrunners in Canterbury United.
Southern comes off the back of the best season in its history — six wins, six draws and a fifthplace finish — and it is looking to keep building on that progress.
‘‘I think we look strong again,’’ coach Paul O’Reilly said.
‘‘Defensively we look solid. We’ve got good options defensively — we’re big, we’re strong, we’re physical.
‘‘I think most of our progress last year was based off being defensively a lot more solid than in previous seasons.
‘‘So that will be the starting point again, to be strong and physical and aggressive.
‘‘If we can build on that I think we’ve got some real quality on attack.’’
He added that now the side had to perform well to prove it was strong, rather than just looking good on paper.
Kristian Gibson and Tom Connor are the key losses on the defensive end.
Gibson has returned to Northern Ireland, while Connor was unavailable due to work and family commitments.
Conor O’Keeffe and Stephen Last are both back, while Markus Fjortoft and Erik Panzer
are additions.
Several local products were among the other key losses.
Tim McLennan is on an OE, Hamish Cotter has finished university and is working in Christchurch, while Andrew Ridden now has a young family and work commitments.
O’Reilly said it was unfortunate not to have access to them, although he respected their reasons, as playing for the side was a big commitment.
The team had been training eight times per week in the preseason, as well as having two games.
Early on it was beaten 41 by Canterbury United, although it put out a young side on that day.
Last weekend it beat Tasman United 10 in Christchurch, which O’Reilly felt was a good marker of where the team was at.
While he would have liked to play more preseason games, it was tough to get teams down to play against and travelling north was not an option within the budget.
He knew Sunday would be a huge challenge, remarking Canterbury had made some top signings to add to an already quality side.
‘‘We’re looking in good shape. We’re hopeful going into the game we can get something out of it.
‘‘If we can come back with a point or even three that’d be a massive result for us.
‘‘But I think, the first game up, the key is that we have a positive performance.
‘‘Hopefully we get the result, but even if we don’t get the result, it’ll give us something to build on.’’