With only six games left in the east-division campaign for the Suns, a six-point buffer between them and the looming NPL3 drop was more than handy.
But with seventh-placed Melbourne City making the trek to Shepparton to compete at McEwen Reserve’s Theatre of Dreams, Craig Carley’s troops can crush the visitors’ hopes of staying up and widen the gap to nine points with a victory tonight.
‘‘We feel like we’ve probably let ourselves down over the past couple of weeks in terms of the end result,’’ Carley said.
‘‘Hopefully, we can make up for that against City.
‘‘We’re under no illusions, we know how massive this game is and we’ve touched on it, this week that it’s a six-pointer.
‘‘If we can get a win here I think we can really string a few together and move up the table and do our season some justice.’’
The Suns have lost the past two outings but will have to bounce back from 7 pm tonight without Matt Lelliott (suspension) and captain Jamie England (injury).
‘‘The team will have to be reshuffled and re-jigged,’’ Carley said.
‘‘But I have full confidence that the boys we put out there will be able to get the job done.’’
As for how to approach tonight’s outing, Carley knows his Suns must wait for the chance to strike, rather than forcing the issue.
‘‘We really need to be disciplined when we have the ball and we probably have to keep possession a lot more,’’ Carley said.
‘‘We need to be really, really patient and not go too gung-ho because that’s when they’ll hurt us on the counter.’’
The under-20 Suns kick off at 5 pm against second-placed City and will look to turn around a run of four losses in a row.
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