Stadium setting seen as boost for Southern

A BIG stage awaits Southern United today.

The team is set to play the Wellington Phoenix Reserves at Westpac Stadium in the national football league.

A curtainraiser to the Phoenix senior side’s game against the Central Coast Mariners, it will also be Southern’s second televised game of the year.

Looking to secure the team’s third win in as many weeks, coach Paul O’Reilly felt the bigger stage would act as a boost for his players.

‘‘I think it has a positive impact,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s like when we played at Forsyth Barr at the start of the season. In years gone past, people have said it’s a negative because it’s a big stadium and it’s a new field.

‘‘But I actually think it’s a positive impact. People get a buzz, you’re walking out the tunnel, massive stadium, good crowd; that’s the reason everyone trains hard and works hard and wants to have success. Because you get the chance to play on that platform.’’

The Phoenix side has not won a game yet this season, although O’Reilly was not taking it lightly.

A young team, it had plenty of quality technical players, including Dunedin product James McGarry, and he felt Southern would have to defend well.

That defence has been a hallmark of the team this year and one of the key areas O’Reilly said had improved.

However, he added the team was not looking too far ahead, knowing it had to stay consistent

Westpac Stadium, today, 4.45pm

Southern United: Liam Little, Conor O’Keeffe, Tom Connor, Kristian Gibson, Stephen Last, Omar Guardiola, Jared Grove, Garbhan Coughlan, Andrew Ridden, Cody Brook, Michael Hogan, Morgan Day, Hamish Cotter, Sam Carmichael, Tom Stevens.

Wellington Phoenix Reserves: (from) Keegan Smith, Pranay Singh, Jake Williams, Liam Moore, Liam Wood, Liberto Cacace, Gianni Bouzoukis, Ollie Whyte, Willem Ebbinge, Sam Sutton, Ollie Valentine, Luke Tongue, Sam Philip, Ben Waine, Matt Conroy, Zac Jones, Manyumow Achol, Jacob Masseurs, James McGarry, Sarpreet Singh, Logan Rogerson.

to turn a great start into a great season.

‘‘I wouldn’t say we’ve talked about a great season at all. We’ve just talked about continuing to bring the performance levels that we’ve been bringing. It’s pretty much game to game.

‘‘It is a really good start and that’s come off the back of lots of hard work from the players and they have to be commended for that.

‘‘It really is now just about consistency of performance.’’

So far, the side has battled injury to claim its eight points and it will have to continue to do so.

Striker Danny Furlong and midfielder Danny Ledwith will both miss today’s game after picking up hip and foot injuries respectively.

And Roland Bala remains unavailable with a knee injury, while Ben Wade is still recovering from a broken arm.