Round 2 Preview

The battle for early advantage in this season’s Illawarra Mercury Premier League continues this weekend with six more mouth-watering ties spread over Saturday and Sunday.

Match of the round

Bulli FC v Albion Park White Eagles @ Balls Paddock – kick-off 2.30pm, Saturday 2 April

Two sides many predict will finish in the top five go head to head on Saturday at Balls Paddock.

Bulli did the double over Albion Park in 2015, so the visitors will be looking to improve on last season’s results sheet, and judging by their performance against Port Kembla in Round 1, they may well give Bulli a tough time.

Shaun Mcrae scored for the White Eagles in both last season’s ties involving these two clubs. He’ll be hungry for more this season, but he has new faces alongside him now in Mitchell Del Turco and Shohei Okuno, both of whom impressed up front in Albion Park’s Round 1 win over Port Kembla.

Ben McDonald and Julian Minutillo both scored against Albion Park in 2015 and on the evidence of this season so far they are looking even more threatening with the added energy from Dylan Lewis up the right.

It’s actually how well the two teams defend that may decide this tie. Both sides kept a clean sheet in Round 1. Surely, with attacking flair of this calibre on both teams, they’ll be hard-pressed to repeat the feat in this match.

Other games on Saturday 2 April

Port Kembla FC v Wollongong Olympic @ Wetherall Park kick-off 2.30pm

Two more teams who both have hopes of challenging for Finals spots come September have an early season encounter at Wetherall Park on Saturday.

Both sides had the wind taken out of their sails in Round 1: Olympic being pegged back for a draw after going 2-0 up against Wollongong United with fifteen minutes left to play; and Port Kembla failing to find the net in a 1-0 defeat to Albion Park.

Olympic would probably have taken greater comfort from their result last week, coming so close to defeating the reigning Champions. Yusuke Ueda looked dangerous in front of goal and if his 2016 strike partner Wandi Jajaw gets fired up, it will be interesting to see how Port’s defence shapes up.

Port Kembla have a lot of new faces this season, with more still to come according to coach Stuart Beedie. The big issue is how soon they gel as a unit. Round 2 is our second opportunity to see.

 

Tarrawanna Blueys v Woonona FC @ Tarrawanna Oval– kick-off 2.30pm

The two sides with big wins in Round 1 take each other on in Round 2 at Tarrawanna Oval. Both will be brimming with confidence, Tarrawanna after a convincing 4-1 win at Picton and Woonona on the back of their 3-0 victory over Cringila.

The Sharks are looking an altogether stronger outfit for 2016 than they were in 2015, when they conceded 11 goals in two defeats to Tarrawanna. New head coach Brendan Anderson has instilled a sense of belief in a side which started badly last season and struggled all year. Last week’s win was just the kick-start he will have been looking for and a result in this Round 2 tie could keep the Woonona on the right path.

Rick Goodchild scored a hat-trick against Woonona last season and got his name on the scoresheet again in Round 1, so he is one to watch for Woonona. They’ll need to keep an eye also on Sam Isabella, who scored as well last weekend, and is one of the new recruits to the Blueys line-up signed from the Wollongong Wolves under-20s set-up.

 

Wollongong United v Shell Cove @ Macedonia Park – kick-off 2.30pm

Wollongong United showed last weekend why they are Champions. At 2-0 down with fifteen minutes to play, they seemed to have no chance, but once they had pulled one goal back, the sense of belief in the squad not only drew them level before the final whistle, but very nearly gave them victory in the dying seconds.

It’s a momentum Shell Cove will be hard-pressed to stop when they visit Macedonia Park on Saturday.

Shell Cove were last season’s draw specialists and in fact drew this same tie in 2015. The style of football they played in the opening half hour against South Coast United in Round 1 suggests they may achieve greater things in 2016. Some of the youthful talent brought in by head coach Paul Carter impressed in particular. He will have to do without one of those youngsters, though, after goal scorer Daniel Vellonio received a second yellow on Saturday, meaning he will miss this tie.

Wollongong United always play as a unit, building up from a strong back four. Goals can come from anywhere on the field, though they have signed prolific goal scorer Chris Smith for 2016 so we’ll see if he can join their long list of players on the IPL scoresheet.

Sunday 3 April

Kemblawarra Fury v Cringila Lions @ Albert Butler Memorial Park– kick-off 2.30pm

Neither side scored in their respective ties in Round 1, but that should change on Sunday for at least one of these two teams.

Fury will be everyone’s favourite to win this match comfortably. Their 0-0 draw with Bulli last week was anything but boring and was down to impressive defensive displays rather than poor attacking play.

With the likes of Matthew McNab and Robbie Shields up front, Fury are going to be ferocious opponents for most IPL outfits this season and they will surely test a Cringila defence that leaked three goals in Round 1 against Woonona.

By all accounts, the scoreline at Ocean Park (Woonona) didn’t reflect how tight that match was, so Cringila may yet spring a surprise. But this could be another torrid afternoon for the Lions, who have a tough opening draw with this being the second of three consecutive away games to start their season.

South Coast United FC v Picton Rangers @ Ian McLellan Park – kick-off 3.00pm

Both sides started with defeat in Round 1, so the season is bound to improve for at least one of them!

South Coast just failed to come back from 2-0 down against Shell Cove, even though they were playing against ten men for much of that tie last weekend. Last season’s top scorer Liam Unicomb was short of match fitness so stayed on the bench for most of Round 1, but when he did appear he immediately created chances for United. So his fitness could be crucial to them this weekend.

For Picton, Round 1 was an early reminder that the Illawarra Premier League is a step up from the District League (which they won easily in 2015). The spirit is good in this club, though, and they will fancy their chances of getting a result of some sort from their visit to McLellan Park. Dayne Morley showed last week that he can get past a Premier League defence as well as he did in the District League last term – the task for 2016 will be to hang on, when his side does take the lead.

By Simon Duffin