Pressure on for city side
A top-two clash between unbeaten Palmerston North Marist and Whanganui Athletic is themain feature of the men’s Federation League thisweekend.
Athletic have a two-point edge over second-placed Marist, so the pressure is on the city side to win to wrest the lead from Whanganui.
Both sides have been scoring freely going into the new season, with Athletic notching 10 league goals, one more than Marist.
Maristwinger Melvin Rumere leads the golden boot rankings after his hat-trick last weekend, closely followed bymidfielder Luke Minshull and Athletic’s Ryan Holden.
But Marist will be missing Jono Steele, Josh Cremen and Taylor Monk, so will be dipping into their reserves for reinforcements.
Athletic and Marist have kicked off the new season against not-sodifficult opponents, with today’s matchup at the Arena looming as the toughest for both sides this season so far.
While it is too early to predict that the winner will also take the league title this year, such a clear outcome will make whoever comes out on top hard to catch.
A draw – especially given they’re on their home turf – will be a blow to Marist’s title aspirations and keep Athletic at the top.
The city’s other two league sides will also be looking for maximum points today: third-placed Massey University, so they will keep in touchwith the top two; and North End, to improve their placing.
Unfortunately for Massey, they’ll be missing winger Zac
Farmer, their leading goal scorer who is injured, although the rest of the squadwill be back up to full complement.
The good news is the students are at bottom side Levin today, who are without a point after their first three games.
Massey coach Donald Piper said that with a bunch of hard games coming up, they would be going all out for the win at Levin.
‘‘Our preparation hasn’t been ideal, but if we can front-foot it against Levin, we can score more goals,’’ he said.
North End will be looking for their first win of the season when they host Napier City Rovers reserves today.
Coach Scott Robson said it had been a difficult start to the season for his side, ‘‘so this is a pretty important game for us’’.
He saidNorth End had been playing well despite their early slim results and he thought that once they got among the goals, more would follow.
Midfielder Josh Sansom will be missing, but otherwise North End should be at full strength for the game on Memorial Park.
A draw – especially given they’re on their home turf – will be a blow to Marist’s title aspirations and keep Athletic at the top.
In the Horizons Premiership this weekend, leaders Feilding United meet second-placedNorth End reserves.
Both are unbeaten and have the same number of points, but United have a superior goal difference.
In other games, Takaro are at Whanganui Athletic, Massey reserves play Whanganui City and Marist reserves meet Linton.
If fourth-placed Takaro win their game, they will move up into third spot because Palmerston North Boys’ High, currently in third place, have the bye.