State Wide Cup 2012.

The qualifying rounds of the State wide Cup will be played on Monday, and the fixtures are as follows.

Launceston United V Taroona – 1:00pm  Birch Ave.

Kingborough Lions V Burnie United – 2:00pm Lightwood Park.

Olympia Warriors V Derwent United – 7:00pm Warrior Park.

Metro V Launceston City – 2:00pm North Chigwell .

Hobart United V Southern FC – 2:15pm Warrior Park.

University V Somerset – 2:30pm Olinda Grove 2.

Beachside V Nelson – 4:30pm Warrior Park .

Riverside V Glenorchy Knights – 12:30pm Windsor Park.

Winners will join Prospect Knights, Northern Rangers, Devonport City, Ulverstone, South Hobart, Tilford Zebras, Clarence United and Newtown Eagles in the round 16 to be played on Easter Monday.

All Northern teams would fancy their chances of progression, though Burnie have the toughest ask, not only travelling about as far as the State wide Cup will take them, but taking on a side full of confidence after their Southern Summer Cup win.

Riverside will also need to be on top of their game if they are to get over Glenorchy, but Glenorchy’s form so far has been far from impressive, and Riverside do play Windsor park well, and have pulled off some upsets there in the past in this competition.

Launceston will hope they can start the serious stuff on the right foot with a win over Taroon at Birch Avenue at 1pm, many have commented on how Launceston have come a long way this year, and this will be a good test just before the season gets underway.  One thing is for sure, Launceston have had little trouble scoring goals in the Hudson cup, so hopefully this can continue.

Somerset will be playing their regular opponents in this competition when they meet University, and again, Uni have been struggling.  I wonder if the sharks old mate Bobby might be found supporting his old club on Monday?

City also by rights should get over Metro, who cant quiet seem to recover since being relegated from the SPL a few years back now, and Launceston City have shown some fight so far in the preseason.   I expect the embarrassment of being knocked out by a league one side might be motivation enough for Lino and his boys.

No games on the Coast, but some interesting ones to watch if your about in Launceston.

On a side note, Devonport Strikers had an easy win over Ulverstone on Friday night in their North West Summer Cup fixutre, that will do Devonport for a place in the final, its up to the other three to fight out the second place.