Match of the Round
West Wallsend SFC v Cessnock City Hornets FC
Johnston Park, Saturday 2:30pm
Cessnock City Hornets FC coach Brad Miles expects his players to give 100 per cent effort in their match-up against West Wallsend at Johnston Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Bluebells enter the match coming off a Wednesday night win last week that saw them climb into fourth spot. They beat Wallsend 3-1 in a derby match that resumed in the 51st minute after their round 12 fixture was initially abandoned due to injury with Westy leading 1-0.
West Wallsend’s match on Saturday against league leaders Belmont Swansea was then postponed due to wet weather and Cessnock also missed out on their round 17 game last weekend as their match at Toronto was washed out.
The Hornets are now searching for a return to form after they lost three of their five games in May and only picked up four of a possible 15 points from those fixtures.
But they face an uphill battle without their leading goal-scorer Zac Kronholm, who has been a standout in 2024 and skipper Blake Roy who is also sidelined.
They will be boosted by the return of Josh Maguire to the starting lineup and coach Brad Miles wants to see whoever pulls on a Cessnock jersey on Saturday show heart and desire for the full 90 minutes.
“It’s been a bit of a weird season so far with the washouts and injuries, but everyone has them” Miles said.
“We played Toronto mid-week last week and we were pretty average, but the weekend before we had a 0-0 draw with South Cardiff and we were really good. It’s just very inconsistent.
“I want to see 100 per cent effort this weekend. We’re testing our depth at the moment. We had five under-18s in reserve grade when we played Toronto on the bench. It’s unusual for us because we have pretty good numbers, but there’s just a lot of injuries.
“But as I said, I want to see consistency and 100 per cent effort for the 90 minutes from everyone on Saturday.
“Westy are a good team. They have strike all over the park and they’re very good on the ball. They are hard to break down and I expect it’ll be a tough game.”
The Bluebells are on the path towards getting back to their best after the defending champions produced back-to-back impressive performances in draws against Thornton and Toronto Awaba before knocking off Wallsend to end a three-game winless run.
Their coach Bailey Cox is expecting a tough match against the Hornets but is confident his side can earn the three points if they play as they have been in recent weeks.
“It’ll be pretty tough against them like always. The last time we played against them they were pretty decent and they held and moved the ball well,” Cox said.
“It won’t be an easy game and we need to get a win. It’s a big one for us, looking at the ladder with all the make-up games that other teams have. It would be good to get another win and then look to keep rolling on against BelSwans mid-week next week.
“I want to see from us similar to the Thornton and Toronto games. The Wallsend game is hard to go off because it was 35 minutes of chaos, but the Thornton and Toronto games were two of our better performances of the year for holding the ball and keeping our defensive shape. If we can roll that into Cessnock and finish our chances, we’ll get the win hopefully.”
West Wallsend will be missing Tyla Cook and Jake Millsteed (injury) and Luke Willard (work) on Saturday but are otherwise at full strength.
These two sides have met once this year in a match that was played across two attempts due to an injury that saw the game initially abandoned. The Bluebells ended up winning the round nine clash 4-1 when it resumed early last month.
They now get a chance to test each other for a full 90 minutes and a much closer contest looks set to unfold.
South Cardiff FC v Thornton Redbacks FC
Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility, Saturday 7:30pm
Round 18 will wrap up at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Saturday night when South Cardiff FC challenge the Thornton Redbacks.
The Gunners are third on the table but are eager to bounce back from a crushing 6-0 defeat at the hands of league leaders Belmont Swansea at Blacksmiths Oval on Tuesday night in a rescheduled round 13 game.
They went into half-time of that clash down 5-0 and then lost centre-back Harrison Lambley to a second yellow card early in the second stanza, who will now miss Saturday’s game against Thornton through suspension.
The Redbacks will also be without one of their defenders after Logan Watson was sent off for denying a goal with a handball on the goal line during his side’s 3-1 loss against Kahibah on Sunday.
That defeat was Thornton’s second of the season and it saw them slide down the table to sixth. They have spent a large chunk of this season in the top four and can get themselves back up there with a win this weekend and if other results go their way.
These two teams have already met once this season, back in round nine in April at where they contested a 2-2 draw, but each side feels as though they can go one better in round 18.
For South Cardiff’s coach Perry Mellon, Saturday’s game is also about bouncing back from a lacklustre three-game run, during which they have lost twice and have failed to find the back of the net.
“The past three games we’ve been terrible. Some of the worst performances I’ve seen us have,” Mellon said.
“We haven’t scored a goal in that time and haven’t looked like scoring a goal in that time either.
“We’re trying to find something to give us a kick-start. That would be ideal.
“We were seven unbeaten and we’ve gone loss, loss. We’ve got quite a few boys out of form and we just need to find that form again.”
Mellon said that there were a few injuries out of the BelSwans match on Tuesday and was unsure of what his starting lineup will look like come Saturday.
Wallsend FC v Kahibah FC
Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility, Friday 8pm
Round 18 will kick off when Wallsend FC and Kahibah FC meet under lights at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Friday night.
The match was initially scheduled to be played at The Gardens on Sunday, but the two clubs agreed to reschedule it to beat the wet weather and avoid another catch-up game.
Kahibah enters this fixture looking to extend their unbeaten run to five. They are in impressive form, having won three of their past four and drawn the other to climb into second place on the table.
Wallsend, on the other hand, are searching for their first win since round one in February.
These two sides have already met this season, back in round nine in April when Kahibah scored a comprehensive 4-0 victory over the Red Devils at Kahibah Oval.
That loss was one in a streak of 11 defeats that Wallsend are determined to bring to an end with a win on Friday.
Kahibah is focused on earning the three points themselves to remain in second position on the table and reduce the gap between themselves and Belmont Swansea from 12 points to nine.
Toronto Awaba FC v Singleton Strikers FC
Lyall Peacock Field, Saturday 2:30pm
Toronto Awaba will welcome Singleton Strikers to town on Saturday when they go head-to-head at Lyall Peacock Field.
These two teams enter this fixture coming off important victories that ended frustrating winless runs.
The Stags travelled to Turner Park last week on Wednesday night where they beat Cessnock 4-1 in a rescheduled round eight clash to end a five-match winless streak that included four straight draws.
Damon Green was sent off in that match after being booked twice and will now miss this Saturday’s game through suspension.
Toronto sits fifth on the table with 17 points but has the most catch-up matches of any team in the competition, with seven postponed fixtures to be played.
Singleton also played a round eight catch-up game last week and beat South Cardiff 1-0 to secure three points for just the third time in 12 attempts and end a six-game winless run.
The Strikers and the Stags have already met once this season in round nine where they produced an entertaining contest to draw 2-2.
Strikers are keen to produce a much better showing this Saturday and begin their rise up the table from eighth place.
The Stags are fifth on the table and can break back into the top four if they get the job done.
Belmont Swansea United FC have the bye.