BOTH Swan Hill’s men’s and women’s soccer teams will be hoping a return to the road will lead to a return to the winner’s list when both teams take to the park on Saturday.
While Swan Hill’s men’s side came away with a hard earned three-all draw against Golden City last Sunday, the women’s side weren’t as fortunate, suffering a 4-1 loss to Castlemaine Goldfields Gold at home.
It capped off a lean fortnight for the Swans women’s team, who remain fifth on the ladder despite losing consecutive games for the first time this season.
With just two points separating themselves and eighth placed Epsom FC, Saturday’s away match to LaTrobe University SC takes on even greater significance, with Swan Hill women’s assistant coach Emma Pitts hoping for a much stronger showing.
“It’s a must-win game for us, but in reality, we just need to work a bit harder than we have the past two weeks,” Pitts told The Guardian this week.
“As both a playing and coaching group, we weren’t overly pleased with our performance last Sunday, especially defensively, which is where a lot of our focus will be.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t committed or didn’t work hard enough; to be honest we were probably too aggressive in our approach and that’s an area we’ll be looking to rectify.
“We don’t want to get in the habit of making excuses, but we were missing close to our entire starting midfield last weekend, which looking back had a big effect on the way we transitioned the ball as well.”
The Swans are expected to regain the services of Heidi Annand, Skye Bennett and Judaya Majur, with all three set to slide into the midfield against LaTrobe.
While Bennett and Majur are expected to play on the wing, a potential role change could be in the offering for Annand upon her return to the team.
“We liked what Charley (Baskin) was able to do last weekend when we moved her into centre midfield and I think we might persevere with her in that role,” Pitts said.
“We’ve kind of thrown Heidi around everywhere this year because she’s such a versatile player, but I think we need to try and settle her down into predominately one position and I think her biggest benefit for our team could be up forward.
“She works well with Trinity (Shelton) and Kayla (Chrisp) and I think it also allows Charley to play more midfield minutes which I think will only benefit her too.”
The men’s team will also be in action on Saturday with a road trip to rivals Deniliquin Wanderers.
A win will be a must for the Swans, who will go into the match as red-hot favourites with the Wanderers yet to score a point from their first four matches.
With fifth placed Border Raiders FC just two points behind fourth placed Swan Hill in the race for the top four, there is now little margin for error for the Swans, who also remain within touch of ladder leaders Strathfieldsaye Colts United.
Conner Brown is expected to take his place in the Swans’ line-up after injuring his ankle in last Sunday’s match against Golden City, while defenders Anyueer Majur and Noah Drummond are also a chance to return for the must-win match.
Also in action this weekend will be Swan Hill’s under 16 boys team, who will play Strathfieldsaye Colts United away Saturday morning.
Swan Hill’s under 14 boys team have the bye.
