The Western Sydney Wanderers will be looking to bounce back from last week’s defeat when they travel to North Turramurra Recreation Area to play Northern Tigers.
This is the first in a tough sequence of games for the Red & Black who have games coming up against 2nd placed St George and 5th placed Central Coast to round off the month of July.
Despite being winless in their last four games, Northern Tigers are not a team to be taken lightly.
The Northern Suburbs outfit have the second best defensive record in the competition with the undoubted highlight of their season being a 5-2 victory over league leaders Marconi Stallions back in May.
Tigers coach Mark McCormick is very experienced having played professionally in Scotland.
More recently, he has also had a coaching stint in the Austrian top flight with Austria Vienna.
After the recent departure of top scorer and former Central Coast Mariners player Ryan Peterson to college soccer in the USA, the Tigers will be looking to young forward Jordan Smylie to make an impact up front.
Smylie, who scored in the last meeting between the Wanderers and Tigers, has eight goals for the season.
Meanwhile, the Wanderers have continued to promote their young players into the NPL 2 squad.
18-year-old Brandon Stojcevski made his NPL 2 debut in last week’s match against Hills Brumbies after joining the Academy with the U20s squad in 2016.
Similarly, 18-year-old midfielder Joshua Bartolotto has progressed into the NPL 2 squad.
Bartolotto began with the U18s team last year and has become a family face in the NPL 2 after featuring in three games.
Northern Tigers vs Western Sydney Wanderers
Saturday 15 July, 2:00pm (U20s kick-off at 12:00pm, U18s at 10:00am)
North Turramurra Recreation Area, North Turramurra
