Burnie face top of the table Riverside in Round 10.
Burnie’s Coach Raymond Parke is expecting an uphill battle against the league’s current benchmark but is ready for the fight.
“Riverside are the form team in the competition, they gave us a proper touch up in the first round but hopefully we’ve learnt from that game and have a more settled line up a lot fitter and maybe a surprise is on the cards,” said Parke.
“Clubs are playing for 3rd and 4th place we are where we are due to our inability to score goals and this puts extra pressure on us,” added Parke.
Parke is looking for application from his side.
“Riverside are not only a skillful unit but also a tough unit as results show but we will try hard to find a chink in their armour
“ Not to concede early goals, win the battles in the vital areas and improve on our goal scoring.”
Somerset Sharks travel to Prospect Park to tackle the Knights.
The Sharks enter confident of securing a result.
"We will be taking a full strength squad up. Elliot Stewart, Kaimon Johnson and Keiran Whitehouse all back in the mix. Just eager to put another big score card in,” said the Somerset Coach.
The Sharks President Nigel Brown is hoping his boys are on their game.
"Start of the second round and we need to keep winning to keep pressure on leaders Olympic. Prospect Knights have some quality back in and are tough at home so we will need to be on our game as we cannot afford a slip up."
Devonport and Ulverstone tussle in a northwest derby.
Rangers and Launceston City also face off in a Northern Derby, Rangers enter the clash disappointed with their output to date.
“To say we are disappointed with the first half of our season would be an understatement. Seventh place is simply not good enough for the squad that we have, even with the restrictions put on us by FFT. During the last couple of weeks, we have had some discussions around what we expect as a group and what would be a pass mark at the end of the season, and nothing short of a top four finish will be good enough for our group,” said Northern Rangers Coach Brendan Lichtendonk.
“At the start of the year I really felt we would still be in a position to challenge for the title at this point, and I take responsibility for that, the aim now is to let history be that, and move on and do everything we can to achieve our goals from this point.
“We still have some injury concerns, but this week we welcome back Dylan Headland, who we have sorely missed since he was injured, having only played 2 games for us, he is still our leading goal scorer I think, so its exciting to get him back this week.
“Adam McIntyre is fully fit again, and he was great when he came on against Riverside last match, and with a little more composure with his challenges, he will be one of our most important players for the rest of the season.
“We will continue to work on our front three, we just aren't getting a return for our efforts in the front third, and something needs to change this week. Mitch Dent will come back and join the Premier League this week to get some time in his legs after some games in the Victory League from the bench, we will throw him up front and give him some licence to get at City's back four and hopefully do some damage, but he needs to also play to our system and ensure he works for the team, something that will be tough having not played with us before.
“We have lost our midfield play maker in Ash Fisher up to Victory League this week, he has been really consistent for us, so we will miss him, and we are still waiting on Josh Burk to return from injury too, hopefully next week as Josh has simply been outstanding in nearly every game.”
Its a different looking side from our last match with Riverside, but we are confident we can get the second half of the year off to a good start, and build towards a strong finish.
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