Match Preview

Wellington Phoenix Reserves vs Southern United
Newtown Park, Wellington
Sunday 2 December, 3pm
#ISPSHandaPrem #WPvSU

Referee: A Riley
Assistant Referees: M Whitehead, T Pedley
Fourth Official: E Cook

Squads

Wellington Phoenix Reserves: 1. Zac Jones (GK), 2. Boyd Curry, 3. Dino Botica, 4. Liam Moore, 5. Kurtis Mogg, 6. Gianni Stensness, 8. Tacettin Kumsuz, 9. Calvin Harris, 10. Willem Ebbinge, 11. Sam Sutton, 13. Noah Tipene-Clegg, 16. Ronan Wynne, 17. Benjamin Waine, 19. Maximilian Batchelor, 21. Owen Smith, 25. Stephen Sprowson
Coach: Paul Temple

Southern United: 1. Liam Little (GK), 2. Conor O’Keeffe, 3. Rory Findlay, 4. Stephen Last, 5. Erik Panzer, 6. Danny Ledwith, 7. Ben Deeley, 8. Tony Whitehead, 9. Garbhan Coughlan, 10. Abdulla Al-Kalisy, 11. Benjamin Wade, 12. Nick Treadwell, 13. Jared Grove, 14. Adam Hewson, 15. Blake Weston, 16. Stewart Catto (GK)
Coach: Paul O’Reilly

Lowdown

After a stop-start opening to their season, Southern appear to be settling into some consistency, picking up four points from the last two matches. Paul O’Reilly will be aiming to use that as the foundation for a lengthy undefeated run and will certainly expect it to be extended for at least one more match as the Phoenix are the only side yet to register a point. Southern will be without their big signing of the off-season though as Markus Fjortoft is suspended after being sent off in last week’s South Island derby win over Tasman.

Quotes

Paul Temple (Wellington Phoenix coach): “Paul has done an outstanding job at Southern, they’ve really turned their club and culture around. They’re very well organised and efficient and have some good players at their disposal. They’re capable of beating anyone on their day, as they’ve proved in the last two seasons. It’s going to be a real battle, not only physically but tactically, so we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Ben Deeley (Southern United): “It will be exciting to get back out there coming off a good win against Tasman, now we have to build on that and get ready for another good fixture. The Phoenix will be well up for it and we need to be prepared for that. The Tasman game was quite tough at times but we got there in the end and we’ll be looking to get another three points to build for the rest of the season.”

#UnitedWeStand