ORANGE Wanderers’ goalkeeper Daryl Kennewell said with two games left in the men’s Premier League Hockey season the equation is simple for his side - stand up and be counted on Saturday against Bathurst Souths or forget about playing finals.
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Wanderers, fifth, host fourth-placed Souths at Orange Hockey Centre and are desperate for a win to keep any semi-finals hopes alive.
“It’s pretty simple now, we need to win our last two games,” Kennewell said.
“Souths had the wood on us last time. They scored three or four quick ones in that game, so they’ll be confident again.
“We know we can beat them. We were disappointed losing last weekend to Parkes, it made our job tougher but we all know we can do it. It’s just a matter of putting our words into action.”
Wanderers are four points adrift of Souths, and a place in the competition’s top four, and also need to defeat Lithgow Zig-Zag next week to maintain a chance of qualifying for the play-off stages.
“That’s what we want, we want to play semi-finals,” he said.
“We’ve got the easiest run home of any side - so if it’s going to happen, it has to happen now. Even with a win in both games we’ll be relying on Souths to lose both, but obviously we need to concentrate on beating them first.”
Frustration has got the better of Wanderers at times this season, Kennewell said, before adding his side have found out the hard way that playing good hockey doesn’t necessarily translate into wins.
“I know we say it every week but we’re playing well, we have been all season,” he said.
“We’re just conceding a few more than we should be, and not taking our opportunities. We’ve worked into our system, and it’s taken shape pretty well. Guys like Alex Said, Nick Sharp and Keegan Brooke are crucial to it working, they need to take the chances they get up front.
“We need to stay strong defensively as well, if we all do our job we should be alright.”
Wanderers takes on Souths from 2.35pm.
