Attack on agenda

It will be an attack-minded Marlborough Mariners squad that takes the field against Nelson United First XI at Guppy Park in Nelson tomorrow, as they look to apply the heat on top of the table Richmond at the business end of the season.

The Mariners currently lie second on the table and must keep winning and winning well if they have any ambitions of knocking Richmond out of top spot and taking the league title.

Assistant coach Paul Finnegan emphasised the need for the Mariners to hit the back of the net as much as possible from now on, saying they needed to maintain the pressure on Richmond and hope they would slip up in the coming weeks.

The Mariners have a full squad available tomorrow and go into the game unbeaten in their last eight outings, but a big, physical Nelson United unit is on a streak of their own, having won four on the trot.

Earlier in the season an understrength Mariners team was taken to the cleaners 7-0 by Nelson United, in one of only two losses the Mariners have suffered all season. Since then though the Marlborough side have become a much more polished outfit, winning the last clash between the two sides 2-0. Finnegan said they were playing good football of late and he expected the Mariners to come away with the points.

"That loss to them was a wake-up call for us and was probably a turning point in our season. If we keep our discipline and play the way that's expected of us we should have no problems."

Recent wet weather forcing ground closures had meant his team's build up hadn't exactly been ideal, he said, but they had luckily managed to get two trainings in this week and his team were confident of picking up a win.

- The Marlborough Express