Sebastopol Vikings have quickly moved on from last week’s disappointment and are looking to bank three points against Balmoral to maintain their standing at the top of the Football Federation Victoria state league four west ladder.
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The Vikings went down 1-0 to fellow contender Bell Park last week following a controversial 94th minute penalty. But coach Corey Smith said his side was not one to spend too much time looking in the rear vision mirror and after it reviewed the game, it put it to bed.
“We’ve moved on from last week,” Smith said.
“We pretty much wiped that game from the memory as soon as we did the review. Obviously we have to look at certain things within the game, but the result’s always secondary to the football that we’re trying to play.
“We’ve made a massive attempt this year to focus on how we play each week and I think the result is then a by-product of us playing good football. Every good team in sport looks forward, not backwards.”
Last time the two sides met they fought out a 2-2 draw at Balmoral. This time the match will serve as a curtain-raiser to Ballarat City’s clash with Bendigo. The Vikings to kick-off proceedings at 3pm at Morshead Park.
Smith said Pietro Angeli was a 50/50 chance to play due to injury while there were a few players with “a few knocks”. Adrian Curtain may also miss given his expecting-partner is due over the weekend.
Smith said the group had kept the focus clear and that was about gaining points and performing well against the top sides. The ladder would be the end result of what he hopes is a strong finish to the season.
“I think the key thing is to focus on our performance.
“We spoke a lot in our review about the fact that it’s about gaining points – it’s a points tally. The ladder position is not relevant until the end of the season.
“We’re looking at it as a positive thing and we’re going into this game hoping to get three points and that’s as far as we’re looking at this stage.”