It’s the final game of the Foxtel Y-League 2018/19 season, and a road trip to the nation’s capital beckons.
Fourth place in the five-team competition is assured for the Newcastle Jets, who can climb as high as 12 points with a win on Saturday evening.
They had a chance to remain in finals contention with a win over Sydney in their last match, back on January 12.
REPORT: A late rally sees Sydney win out
Unfortunately for Labi’s lads, they couldn’t maintain a lead they eked out in the opening half and went down 3-2 to the Sky Blues.
Canberra United are languishing at the bottom of the ladder without a win in seven attempts, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be easybeats.
They were beaten 3-0 by Sydney FC last weekend, but prior to that they were just edged out 2-1 by the Central Coast Mariners.
Team news
Riley Smith is one player who made his first appearance of the Foxtel Y-League season last time out against Sydney, and could be in the line for more gametime this Saturday.
With a squad of 18 named and en route to Perth for the Hyundai A-League clash with the Glory on Sunday evening, the remaining players could be a chance of appearing.
Kosta Petratos, Pat Langlois, and Noah James are three players who have been relative mainstays in the side this Y-League season and could be expected to appear once again this weekend.
From the coach
“It’s our longest away trip, it’s our last game which is a challenge in itself,” coach, Labi Haliti said.
“It’s a challenge because we have to go down there, but I think it’s a good time to go there, we’ll go to compete and regardless of whether it’s our last game or not, we want to win.
“It’s a bit of a dead rubber, yeah, but we’re going there with our best possible squad and our intention is always to win, this is no different.
“All of the boys have been training well and pushing for a spot, so it’s not a case of just giving boys chance without reward, everyone earns their spot in the side.
“We’re not sure what first-team boys we’ll be taking with us, we know we’ll have a few but it’s just not confirmed who that’ll be yet.”
