WSL Round 8 Preview: Sturt Lions vs Adelaide City

A top-of-the-table clash sees Adelaide City face unbeaten pace-setters Sturt Lions in Round 8 of the Apex Steel Women’s State League, but according to Head Coach Paul Morris his side will approach the game like any other.

Entering Friday night’s clash at Karinya Reserve, the Black and Whites trail Sturt by five points and will be desperate to secure victory and close the gap to within two.

A gallant City side suffered a 3-1 defeat in the Apex Steel WNPL/WSL Cup to second-placed Women’s National Premier League outfit West Torrens Birkalla last time out.

“We were disappointed with the result, but the performance was excellent from the girls,” Morris reflected, speaking to Adelaide City’s official website.

“We gave them a game, we gave them a run for their money. If circumstances had of went our way we probably could have potentially taken them to extra time… We were in the ascendancy and totally dominated the second half.

“As a coaching group we were really proud of the girls and proud of the efforts they put in.”

Morris believes their encouraging display serves as strong preparation for Sturt.

“We expect that to give us a tremendous lift and boost,” he added.

“We look at the other State League results from the cup and every other team struggled and fell to heavy defeats and we were right in the game at 2-1.

“They (Birkalla) scored their third (goal) in the 93rd minute when we were pushing everyone forward trying to get an equaliser.

“We said the next three games will define our season, so very happy with the performance so we expect that to give us that lift in confidence coming into Friday night and the rest of the season that we can perform at the top level.”

Meanwhile, the Lions suffered a 6-3 loss to WNPL leaders West Adelaide in the cup, but remain undefeated after seven matches in the league.

Two weeks ago, Sturt appeared on the brink of dropping points to bottom-placed South Adelaide Panthers before two goals in the final 10 minutes sealed a 2-1 comeback win.

And with their recent form far from convincing Morris feels now is a perfect opportunity to take on the competition’s frontrunners.

“We won’t approach the game differently, we approach every game to win,” he insisted.

“Yes they’ve won a couple of games but their form has dropped off – they scraped a 1-0 win against Western Strikers and they just beat South Adelaide 2-1.

“We believe they’re coming off a bit of unusual form and they’ve conceded six against West Adelaide.

“… We’re going in confident, we’re going in believing we’ve got the game plan to beat them and hopefully we can take away three points where we believe we’re in form and they’re in a little bit of slump at the moment.”

City leapfrogged Adelaide Jaguars into second spot in their previous league fixture, thanks to a 2-1 triumph and will want to consolidate that position with another three points.

“The focus at training this week has just been another game,” he claimed.

“We’re not saying that it’s a make or break or a top-of-the-table clash. The old cliché it’s just one game at a time. But we understand deep down the importance of it.”

The Oakden-based club come into the match on a six-game invincible run following an opening round setback to Sturt and City Coach Paul Morris is hoping to avoid a repeat.

“The first game in the league they scored in the 93^rd minute with a speculative long-range freekick,” he said.

“We’re still going into the game confident we have the game plan to beat them.”

Match Details

Sturt Lions vs Adelaide City

Apex Steel Women’s State League – Round 8

Friday, 1 May

Kick-off: 7:30pm

Karinya Reserve