Belmont Swansea United FC v West Wallsend SFC
Blacksmiths Oval, Sunday 7:30pm
Round 17 Rescheduled Fixture
West Wallsend SFC coach Bailey Cox said that it is crucial to put in a good performance in this Sunday’s clash against Belmont Swansea as they push for promotion.
West Wallsend and BelSwans will meet under lights at Blacksmiths Oval this weekend in their round 17 rescheduled fixture.
The premiers have two games left to play in the HIT 106.9 Northern League One competition before they depart for the NNSW National Premier Leagues in 2025, and both of those games are against West Wallsend.
BelSwans have been the best team the competition has seen in 10 years since Maitland and Valentine battled out a two-horse race for the premiership in 2014, and they are eager to go out in winning ways before going on to bigger and better things.
This Saturday’s match is also BelSwans’ last home game of the 2024 campaign and they are keen to treat their fans to another win.
Mick Stafford’s men are undefeated at home this season, having won 10 of their 11 games at Blacksmiths Oval so far and they are determined to keep that record intact come Saturday.
West Wallsend are also focused on picking up the three points this Saturday as they look to secure their top-four position.
The Bluebells are fourth on the table, four points clear of fifth-placed Singleton with a game in hand on them which means that a win against BelSwans would make them almost uncatchable.
They are also six points behind Kahibah with a game in hand on them and they play them next Wednesday night in a rescheduled round 23 contest.
For Westy’s coach Bailey Cox, Saturday’s game is also about tightening up their defence as they begin to eye off their promotion push.
“Mathematically, we need to win two more games and we’re 100 per cent guaranteed for the top four,” Cox said.
“This is probably the biggest game of our season so far.
“Hopefully we can get back to the defence that we had when we went on that run of nine (unbeaten games) in a row. We’ve conceded six in our past two games now, but on that nine-game streak, we only conceded 11 all up. We need to get back to that.”
These two sides met once this year when they faced off under lights at Johnston Park in June and finished all squares at 0-0. They are both looking to find the back of the net this Saturday while maintaining that same defensive resolve.
Singleton Strikers FC v South Cardiff FC
Howe Park, Saturday 2:30pm
Round 17 Rescheduled Fixture
Singleton Strikers will host South Cardiff FC in a must-win battle for both sides at Howe Park on Saturday afternoon.
The rescheduled round 17 clash will see two determined teams face off as they look to keep their top-four hopes alive, with Singleton sitting in fifth place with 28 points and South Cardiff sitting directly below them with 27 points.
The two teams have three matches left to play in the regular season and are four and five points, respectively, behind fourth-placed West Wallsend.
The Strikers’ late-season push stalled last weekend when they went down 2-1 away from home against Kahibah. They had gone into that game having won five of their previous six matches, a run that has given them a chance to compete for promotion later this month.
Doug West’s side has been one of the big improvers this year, and Saturday’s clash against South Cardiff is a chance to prove they belong in the top four.
The Gunners’ promotion playoff chances were given a significant boost last month when they scored impressive clean-sheet victories against top-two sides Belmont Swansea and Toronto Awaba.
But they have since failed to score in a three-game losing streak against West Wallsend, Kahibah and Cessnock.
The 2023 grand finalists have had a rollercoaster 2024 campaign, and now Perry Mellon and his men are hoping to ride a high home for the remainder of the season and reach similar heights to last year.
They went down 1-0 against Singleton when the two sides met in May and they are eager to turn that around on Saturday afternoon.
Toronto Awaba FC v Cessnock City Hornets FC
Lyall Peacock Field, Saturday 4pm
Round 17 Rescheduled Fixture
The two form teams of the competition will face off at Lyall Peacock Oval on Saturday evening when Toronto Awaba welcome Cessnock to town.
These two sides hold the largest active winning streaks, Toronto Awaba with four and Cessnock with three, and both have been producing impressive football of late.
The Stags climbed into second spot on the table on Wednesday night when they prevailed 6-1 in a rescheduled round 11 clash on home soil against Wallsend.
The score was 2-1 at half-time in that match after Jarrod Purcell and Connor Fitzpatrick scored either side of an Alejandro Jurado-Arboleda equaliser. Then a second-half Nick Roberts hat-trick and a Preston Conley strike saw the hosts kick on with it to score a five-goal victory.
Toronto Awaba have now finally played as many games as third-placed Kahibah and they sit one point ahead of them in second place with three games left to play.
Extending their winning streak to five games this Saturday will go a long way towards securing last year’s premiers a second-place finish in 2024.
Cessnock is eighth on the nine-team table, and while they cannot reach the top four this season, they can finish as high as fifth and are certainly determined to achieve that.
The Hornets have failed to beat Toronto Awaba in the past four league matches the two sides have played against one another, but they have improved drastically this season and are ready to put their best foot forward on Saturday.
Wallsend FC v Thornton Redbacks FC
The Gardens, Sunday 2:30pm
Round 15 Rescheduled Fixture
This weekend’s action will wrap up at The Gardens on Sunday where Wallsend FC and Thornton Redbacks will go head-to-head in a rescheduled round 15 fixture.
These two teams both have three games left to contest in 2024 and they are playing for pride as they are out of top-four contention.
The Redbacks are seventh on the table but can end up as high as sixth if they finish the season in the fashion they intend to.
They spent most of the first half of the campaign in the top four but went winless in seven matches across June and July, before finally snapping that run in round 24 when they outscored Wallsend 4-0 at Thornton Park.
The Redbacks had a chance to freshen up with the bye last weekend and they are now pumped to beat Wallsend for the third time this year.
The Red Devils are sitting last on the table, having only picked up one point in 20 matches since their outstanding 4-0 victory against South Cardiff in round one back in February.
They showed so much promise and potential at Ulinga Oval that night but have been unable to put it together since.
Chris Gallagher’s men know they have another win in them before the season comes to an end, and their last home game at The Gardens for 2024 is the perfect time to get the job done.
Kahibah FC have the bye.
