City eye fifth win in a row

Words: ACFC Media

Thursday 11 April 2024

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Auckland City FC will be looking to continue their perfect start to their Northern League campaign when they visit the West Coast Rangers on Friday night.

The match at Fred Taylor Park under lights will kick off Round 5 and the Navy Blues, who sit at the top of the competition, are eager to bank all three points in order to put pressure on the chasing pack.

Left back Nathan Lobo says the players are brimming with confidence going into the encounter.

“It’s a confident vibe at the moment, I mean we are playing good football and it’s not just we are getting results, we are playing very well as well, so hopefully we can take that into the following games,” he explained.

The Rangers have kicked off their season with two draws and two defeats to sit in 10th place on the table.

But head coach Albert Riera insists his team can’t read too much into those early results and will have to be prepared for a stern challenge from the home side.

“Currently we are top of the table and even though it’s still very, very early I think the other teams are always going try to beat the top teams and at the moment we are one of the top teams so that gives them probably an extra motivation.

“They probably haven’t had the best start but it’s just early in the season, very early in the season and most of the teams will need a few rounds to gel together.

They have new faces and slowly they are going to be better and better, so we are focused on this game knowing that it’s going to be very hard,” said the Navy Blues coach.

Lobo echoed these sentiments by saying he and his teammates are expecting a real test from the Rangers.

“The results don’t show the team that they are. They are a very well drilled team and they are hard to break down.

“I mean it shows, last year when we drew 1-1 with them at home so I think the West Coast Rangers will bring something different, the City left back said.

Meanwhile, Valerio Raccuglia’s U23 side will be hoping to notch ups their third Lotto NRFL Premiership win in a row when they face their Rangers counterparts in Saturday’s Round 5 match at Fred Taylor Park with kick-off scheduled for 12pm.

Ends

HEAD TO HEAD - WEST COAST RANGERS

2021

v. West Coast Rangers (A) 4-0 (Stewart ADDISON, Angus KILKOLLY, Yousif AL-KALISY, OG)
v. West Coast Rangers (H) 2-0 (Myer BEVAN, Kristoff MULLER)

2023

v. West Coast Rangers (H) 1-1 (Ryan DE VRIES | Allan PEARCE)
v. West Coast Rangers (A) 3-0 (Ryan DE VRIES, Liam GILLION, Regont MURATI)

MATCH DETAILS
Northern League Round 5
Friday 12 April 2024
West Coast Rangers v Auckland City FC
Fred Taylor Park
Kick-off: 7.30pm

AC SQUAD: 1-Conor TRACEY (GK), 2- Mario ILICH, 3- Adam MITCHELL, 4-Christian GRAY, 5- Timothy BOULET, 7-Cam HOWIESON (c), 8-Gerard GARRIGA. 9-Angus KILKOLLY, 10-Dylan MANICKUM, 11-Ryan DE VRIES, 12- Regont MURATI, 13-Nathan LOBO, 15- Caleb MOOSBALLY, 16-Joe LEE, 17-Joe RIDLEY, 18 - Areya PRASAD (GK), 19-Liam GILLION, 21- Adam BELL, 22-Tong ZHO, 23- Alfie ROGERS, 24-Joe WALLIS (GK), 25- Michael DEN HEIJER, 26-Rayan TAYEB, 27-Stipe UKICH.

COACH: Albert RIERA
ASSISTANT COACH: Ivan VICELICH
GK COACH: Enaut ZUBIKARAI
TECHNICAL: Adria CASALS
TECHNICAL: Jarrod WALLACE
LOGISTICS: Keith COTON
PHYSIO: Matt PAYNE