Tara Murray
Westside Strikers are trying to find their feet in the FV state league 4 west competition.
The Strikers were relegated from state league 3 in the off season and had a bit of a slow start to the season.
Having won their last two matches, the Strikers are now starting to find their groove.
Strikers coach Simon Vasconcelo said they were starting to find their way.
“It’s been good to win the last two games,” he said. “It’s always pleasing to hit a bit of good form.
“We have our first home game back at Taylors Hill this week.
“Even though we’ve played two home games at Brookside, it’s a home away from home.
“Hopefully the boys are excited to be back at Taylors Hill. We’ll train there this week and hopefully they’ll enjoy their first game back.”
Vasconcelo said it had been a bit of a learning curve returning to state league 4 west after one season in state league 3.
He said the state league 4 competition was a strong one.
“There’s a lot of teams that have come up and are trying to go back-to-back and there’s some very strong sides.”
Vasconcelo said the focus for their group was to ensure they do enough to stay in state league 4. He knows it won’t be easy.
“We’ve got a different squad and there’s always a lot of player movement,” he said. “We have good culture at the club and hopefully we can keep them together long term.
“There’s a mixture of players and we’ll give it a good go this year. We want to up near the top and see what we need after this year.
“After relegation is can be a slippery slop and we wanted to build momentum. It [relegation] kicks the wind out of the sails when that happens and we don’t want back-to-back relegations. We want some good results and we’ll see where it takes us.”
The Strikers this week face Truganina Hornets.
While the Hornets have struggled, Vasconcelo said they can’t take any match easy.
