Match Preview

Southern United vs Canterbury United Dragons
Tahuna Park, Dunedin (please note this differs from the venue originally scheduled)
Sunday 16 December, 2pm
#ISPSHandaPrem #SUvCU

Referee: A Riley
Assistant Referees: A Verolino, D Waugh
Fourth Official: C Berg

Squads

Southern United: 1. Liam Little (GK), 2. Conor O’Keeffe, 3. Jared Grove, 4. Stephen Last, 5. Erik Panzer, 6. Danny Ledwith, 8. Tony Whitehead, 9. Garbhan Coughlan, 10. Abdulla Al-Kalisy, 11. Benjamin Wade, 12. Ben Deeley, 13. Rory Findlay, 14. Sam Pickering, 15. Blake Weston, 16. Stewart Catto (GK), 18. Markus Fjortoft
Coach: Paul O’Reilly

Canterbury United Dragons: 1. Edward Ashton (GK), 2. Dan Terris, 3. Aaron Spain, 5. Tom Schwarz, 6. Gary Ogilvie, 7. George King, 8. Luke Tongue, 9. Maksym Kowal, 10. Adam Thurston, 11. James Pendrigh, 14. Sean Liddicoat, 15. Andreas Wilson, 16. Cory Mitchell, 17. Stephen Hoyle, 21. Seth Clark, 22. Conor Tracey (GK)
Coach: Willy Gerdsen

Lowdown

This South Island derby is always fiercely contested and will be particularly so on this occasion as both sides are in real need of the points. They will each view a failure to reach the play-offs as a major disappointment and, with Auckland City, Team Wellington and Eastern Suburbs all appearing odds on to claim one of the four spots, there is not a lot of leeway for the chasing pack to work with. Canterbury are only a point off that all-important fourth place but will be leap-frogged by Southern if they fail to win so a repeat of their 1-0 win earlier in the season would do nicely. Southern have struggled for consistency so far and their mini undefeated run of three games came to an end last week at Hawke’s Bay. The hosts will also have to contend with new surroundings after the match was switched to Tahuna Park due to an unplayable pitch at the Caledonian Ground.

#UnitedWeStand