R2 Preview: Port Adelaide Pirates v Croydon Kings

Port Adelaide Pirates v Croydon Kings
South Australia PlayStation4 National Premier League Round 2

When: Friday 20th February. Kick-off 7:30pm
Where: Pirate Park, Swan Terrace, ETHELTON

Teams:

Port Adelaide Pirates: 1 I. Carmody7 J. Coley15 A. Costalos2 L. Farquhar4 J. Forrester12 J. Giles6 R. Gray9 Y. Koulocheris14 N. Krznaric3 M. Mastropaolo10 J. Mavromatis8 K. Mc Fadyen13 D. Pearce5 J. Skeffington11 H. Tanaka

Croydon Kings: 17 A. Boccaccio18 J. Brazzale4 M. Doyle6 N. Farrell12 D. Gazettas13 M. Kamara5 L. Klimek19 L. May7 S. Mcgreevy1 N. Munro10 C. Pepe14 S. Pepper11 F. Violi8 R. VisconteRGK C. Zacharopoulos

Form:

Port Adelaide Pirates: Round 1: Modbury Jets 1 Port Adelaide Pirates 3, Jet Park

Croydon Kings: Round 1: MetroStars 1 Croydon Kings 2, Adelaide Shores Football Centre

Preview:

Round 2 of the South Australia National Premier League sees Pirates host Croydon Kings. This game will be on from the first kick with the reigning champs up against a newly promoted team looking to impress.

Round 1 saw Pirates enjoy a dream start to the season with a hard earned 3-1 victory over Modbury Jets while Crodyon Kings prevailed in a 2-1 win against MetroStars.

Pirates’ main man up front James Skeffington was not just impressed with his side’s result but also the style in which they did it.

 “It’s a good start for us, the boys are full of confidence going into Croydon, we controlled the game not only with the goals we scored but the way we went about it which gives us a lot of confidence.”

Skeffington also spoke about how important last week’s first round win against Modbury was for the club after being recently promoted.

“We know what they’re like and we’ve struggled playing up in Modbury as well so to be able to control the game, get an early goal and then when they score to get one back was always a bonus.”

Pirates’ Captain Kieran McFadyen spoke in high terms of a team performance that was topped off with some individual brilliance from a few team mates.

“James Skeffington’s free kick was world class, it was one of the best free kicks I’ve seen in a long time, he was really good, Johathan Mavromatis and Hiraku Tanaka were the 3 standouts.”

Sometimes playing the reigning champs can make teams apply the handbrake but McFadyen said his team won’t entertain those thoughts.

“We know they’re a good team obviously but at home we didn’t get promoted to try to sit on our hands and defend. We’re going to try to attack which is the best form of defence.”

Croydon Kings Captain Luke Klimek said there was plenty to like about his side’s victory over MetroStars.

“We were pretty happy with all aspects of our game but we were very happy with how we shut them down and didn’t let them play like they usually do.”

Klimek spoke about the mindset his side will take in order to make it two from two.

“I think we just go to focus on mainly ourselves and playing pretty similar to what we did on Wednesday.”

While impressed with the previous round’s result, Croydon keeper Nicholas Munro is well aware of the work ahead for Croydon.

“We were really happy to get away with 3 points against a good team in Metro Stars but obviously this weekend is just as important because we don’t want to let ourselves down now and undo the hard work from last week

With key forward Andrew Wiens expected to miss through injury, Munro had full confidence in his side’s capabilities.

“Attacking wise, we’re lucky we’ve got so many good players who can stretch so as long as we can keep our shape defensively I think we’ll be OK going forward.”

Article by Matthew Carcich - @mattcarcich

 

 




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