In the final round of the South Australia NPL, reigning champions Campbelltown City host third-placed West Adelaide at Steve Woodcock Sports Centre.
Campbelltown, currently in seventh position, will be desperate to gain all three points in hope of securing a finals spot, while West Adelaide will need to win if they wish to finish in the top two.
Both sides will also be following second-placed Croydon Kings and Adelaide City’s clash at Polonia Reserve closely, as the result will determine their final places on the table.
Campbelltown need sixth-placed Adelaide City to drop points, whereas West Adelaide require Croydon to lose in order to overtake them in the standings.
In Round 25, Campbelltown kept their finals hopes alive with a 1-0 away win against Adelaide City.
Campbelltown’s Michael Paleka said last weekend’s win has given his side confidence going into Saturday’s match.
“The win sort of gelled the team together and has given us the faith that it can be done,” Paleka said.
“Obviously we’re depending on other results, but to start off, we have to worry about ourselves before anyone else and all the rest will pan out if it’s meant to be.”
Paleka said Campbelltown will look to play the same way they have in the past couple matches.
“We have to stay composed and tight and basically be very well disciplined, making sure we don’t concede,” he said.
“We’ve been training well, so preparation-wise, we’ve just gone the way we always go about any other game on a Saturday.
“We’ve kept it pretty low key and tried not to think about it too much. We’ll just go out and hopefully come 5pm Saturday afternoon, we’ll have some good news.”
Meanwhile, West Adelaide defeated mid-table side Raiders 3-1 at Adelaide Shores Football Centre in Round 25 to ensure a top three finish.
West Adelaide winger Nathan Andijanto said his side would be looking to continue building good form towards the finals series.
“We’ve talked about it this week that it’s important to play the sort of style of football we want to play and take that into finals so we can finish strong,” Andijanto said.
“We’ve worked a lot on our structure and how we want to play, taking into account the way we think Campbelltown are going to play.”
Andijanto said three points would be vitally important for West Adelaide.
“We know that Campbelltown will be coming out for the three points, considering their place on the table,” he said.
“We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do to try to grab that second spot and hope that Croydon can drop points.”
The match ended in a 1-1 draw when these two sides faced off in Round 13 at Adelaide Shores Football Centre.
South Australia National Premier League Round 26
Campbelltown City v West AdelaideWhen: Saturday, August 16th. Kick off 3pm
Where: Steve Woodcock Sports Centre, Stradbroke Rd, CAMPBELLTOWN