IT’S a must win for Wangaratta and Albury United when they take to Jelbart Park on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
With just six rounds remaining both are within a win of top spot on the ladder, both know a loss could fatally damage their changes for the league title.
Both will be back to near full strength.
Albury United is expected to add Dom Scott and Mike Brownsea to the side that beat Hotspurs on a water-logged Aloyisius Park last Sunday.
Wangaratta is facing its own selection headache with the return of English import Elliott Jones and having the luxury of a now fully-fit co-coach Ivo Madeira having played off the bench in the past two games.
Only two of their three visa players are able to play at any one time.
The Red Devil’s Tom Marshall said they have some tough decisions to make at the selection meeting.
“This is a very, very important clash,” Marshall said.
“We lost 2-0 in the home fixture at the start of the year and we are keen to turn that around, I think the last two games have shown our intention, staked our claim.
““We want to do the double – we are ambitious about it, we have the team to do it and if we can keep our heads it is well within our reach.
“Jones is back and it will be a tough decision – we are full of talent across the board, not just the visa players.
“We have won our last two without him and against the top teams.
“(Visa players) Stoycho Ivanov has been great and Adam Burchell’s goal scoring record speaks for itself.”
Albury United coach Matt Campbell said they would improve on their 1-0 win against Hotspurs.
“Spurs played pretty well on their pitch it’s only small, doesn’t take the rain and we just didn’t adjust,” he said.
“But we also had one eye towards this game and it was a case of getting the points and moving onto Wang, it was only 1-0 but we hit the cross bar four times and had multiple chances.”
Campbell wasn’t reading too much into their 2-0 win over the Red Devils earlier in the year.
“It was second or third round and we had a game plan against them,” he said.
“They had smashed teams in the opening rounds, 5-0 and 5-1, and we had the chance to watch them and get an idea of how dangerous Burchell was and how good Madeira was in the middle.
”We know how important this game is – it’s really tight, if you are sixth on the ladder you still think you can win the league and all the top four or five teams play each other in the coming weeks.
“The old cliche of one week at a time is spot on – it is a case of addressing the game in front of you and then and only then, moving on.”
