Words & Image: Brisbane Strikers FC

Brisbane Strikers coach Chay Hews says his side need to lift this week against league front-runners Brisbane City following last week’s heavy defeat in Townsville.

Strikers were humbled 4-0 against Northern Fury, all but undoing the good work of the previous week’s 3-2 home win over Olympic FC, and sees Strikers needing a win this weekend to stay in touch with the top four.

City currently head the NPL table on goal difference over Redlands United and Sunshine Coast Fire with nine points, while the Strikers are in eighth position with six points.

Strikers Coach Chay Hews is aware of the dangers faced by the league leaders on Sunday and sees the challenge as a motivational force for his side.

“I think in a way it’s easier to try and lift against a team where you know you’re going to get a tough hit-out, rather than a team you might be expected to beat”, Hews said after training on Thursday night.

“I see it in a positive way. City are going to be hard to beat and it’ll be a good game, hopefully”.

Hews was disappointed with the performance in Townsville, but after analysing the video of the game has identified areas for improvement.

“It’s pretty easy to see what went wrong – you can just watch the highlights and after about five minutes of that you get a pretty fair indication.”

“There were some pretty clear problems”, Hews added candidly.

“It gave us some stuff to work on this week and we had a good look at it tonight. Hopefully it won’t happen again”.

The match looms as a battle of two of the league’s top strikers, with City’s Jarrod Kyle lining up against Strikers Matt Thurtell, who continues to improve week-to-week following a lengthy injury lay-off.

“Turts didn’t want to come off, but we’ve got a plan with him to get him back fully fit and when (the score) went to 3-0 it was not worth risking him at that stage”, Hews said.

Hews will be hoping his patience with Thurtell’s comeback from injury pays off as the season continues, but he has more immediate concerns with the fitness of some of his squad.

Several players left Townsville with niggling injuries, while the squad has also been trying to quarantine a stomach virus that felled fullback Chris Maher the night before the Fury game.

Maher is expected to return this weekend, while several other players will be given til match day to prove their fitness.

Kick-off in the feature game on Sunday is at 2.00 pm, followed by the Under-15’s and Under-16’s Boys fixtures at 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm respectively.