Hoping to bond on road

April 26 2014

Shepparton News

Three weeks of road trips begin today, when Goulburn Valley Suns travels to Green Gully for its first National Premier Leagues game away from home.

With five defeats from as many matches — all at Shepparton’s McEwen Reserve — hitting the road may be a blessing in disguise.

‘‘We’re away from home, we’re together and that two hours together beforehand hopefully will break the cycle,’’ Suns coach Melvyn Wilkes said.

Following today’s clash, the Suns face a reverse fixture away to Werribee City and a trip to Broadmeadows to meet Hume City.

Not that any eyes should be cast beyond the task at hand.

If last week’s clash with Werribee City was paramount in building momentum for the upcoming block of away games, today’s meeting with the Cavaliers is critical in the Suns getting a foothold in the competition.

The home side sits one rung above the visitors on the NPL ladder, with just one win — a 4-0 opening round victory against the Bees — from five matches.

Wilkes said there would be no excuses to not being switched on from the opening whistle.

‘‘We’re trying to work on some structure to follow up on what we did in the second half (last) Saturday,’’ he said.

‘‘We need to start how we finished. It seems to be a trend at the minute.

‘‘We’ll have a pre-match and team briefing away from home this time, so we’ll go over a few bullet points from what we did at training and make sure we’re right to go.

‘‘I’m going to take a more hands-on approach in terms of preparation and warm-up for the players, so there will be no more excuses of players starting cold.’’

Wilkes was unusually cagey when it came to discussing the Suns’ starting XI, simply stating it would be similar to last week’s line-up.

He said every player was fit, including Josh Glover, who left the pitch with an apparent back injury against the Bees.

Wilkes said the Cavaliers were a competent passing side with weapons on the flanks, despite their struggles.

‘‘They’ll get on the ball and pass it, we’ve got to make sure we stifle that and not give them time to elaborate on the ball, because that’s when they can potentially hurt us,’’ he said.

Green Gully’s Tasmanian-raised striker Matthew Sanders has been the main man in attack, with four goals to his name so far — one shy of Suns’ striker Craig Carley, who sits equal top of the goal-scoring charts with five.

Kick-off is 3 pm, with the under-20 match to start at 1 pm.

The club’s junior teams are also on the road, travelling to Kingston Heath Soccer Complex tomorrow to take on Bentleigh Greens.