Football West News

Floreat Athena coach Glen Grostate expects Robbie Gaspar to have a positive impact on the club way beyond the great value of his on-field performances.

Gaspar, whose career has included spells in Croatia, Malaysia and Indonesia, made a cameo appearance in last weekend’s win against Balcatta and will take part in Sunday’s Night Series semi-final against Perth.

Grostate has high hopes for the 34-year-old, whose presence is already rubbing off on his teammates.

“What he does on the training track and on the pitch is quality,” Grostate said. “He’s got super knowledge, the boys respect him and it’s going to be massive for us to have him here at the club.”

Gaspar occupied a deep-lying midfield position against Balcatta, but Grostate says his team will take the game to Perth, who lost for the first time in the Night Series against Cockburn City last weekend.

“We’re really looking forward to this weekend,” he said. “Perth have good squad numbers and they can rely on quality even when they don’t have their starting XI.

“But I think we can match them and to beat us they’re going to have to score two goals because we will score. We don’t plan to sit back and wait for any team.”

Perth coach Taki Nicolaidis said his players had trained well and were ready for the match.

“This week was all about refocusing and getting back to the acceptable standards that we expect from the team,” he told the Perth SC website.

“With a Grand Final at stake I'm sure that the group will lift a gear or two.”

Cockburn City will be aiming to continue their 100 percent winning streak when they take on Stirling Lions in the other semi-final.

Coach Marc Anthony was delighted with his side’s win over Perth a week ago.

“I know we’ve got a good bunch of boys and we can beat any team on our day but we’ve got to have consistency,” he said. “We need to get into that winning habit.

“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, working hard, gelling as a team and we won’t have to rely on individuals.

“The minute we think that we’re a good side and we don’t have to work like we have been, we’ll fall flat on our faces.”

SEMI-FINALS: SUNDAY, MARCH 15

SQUADS (shirt numbers allocated prior to kick-off)

Floreat Athena v Perth SC (5pm)

Floreat (from): Jack Allen, Clayton Arnez, Endalk Balcha, Lodovic Boi, Ashley Corker, Jordan Doropoulos, Callum Fransz, Dennis Galan, Kris Gate, Blair Govan, Fraser Greenwood, Lewis Mcmahon, Geordie Papathanassiou, Ryan Pretorius, Andrew Scaldaferro, Jamie Stewart, Sotiri Theodosiadis, Aryn Williams, Bobby Wilson, Cameron Yorke, Nicholas Felekis, Hasan El Yassiri, Anthony Bafobusha, Robbie Gasper.

Perth (from): Francis Soale, Alex Castellio, Luka Njegich, Calum O’connell, Dean Evans, Clark Keltie, Carlo Coelho, Aden Da Luz, Harley Orr, Ash Rosindale, Marco Santalucia, Rocco Pizzata, Mark Pritchard, Nick Ambrogio, Reece Vittiglia, Josh Pereira, Andreas Theodosiades, Matt Milenkovic, Thomas Southgate, Nathan De Abreu, Alex Dunn, Connor Thurston, Joshua Wilkins, Dom Savoldelli.

Cockburn City v Stirling Lions (7.15pm)

Cockburn City (from): Curtis Aspen (GK), Liam Murray, Josh Kuser, Euen Grant, Alan Carroll, Craig Tone, David Araya, Eamon McNelis, Rory Paterson, Devon Gibson, Fiesal Zaw, Blake Adams, Conor Kavanagh, Jonathan Corness, Monty Grigo, Julian Teles, Ryan Haslett, Oscar Thompson, Dejan Aleksic, Jack Adams, Thomas Frin, Friday Zico, Daniel Robinson, Gabriel Keiswetter, Daniel Bryant.

Stirling (from): Connor Campbell, Lance Alavakis, Kyran Nunes, Dylan Filocamo, Lawrence Shuruma, Tim Hill, Brian Woodall, Miki Vujacic, Brodie Martin, Viktor Atanasovski, Boas Mtwale, Moses Kalau, Dan Micevski, Michael Pugliese, Robert Petkov, Andrew Dil Kirr, Nathan Bowden –Hasse, Joshua Tumoe, Loic Anga, Benjamin Kouakou, Julian Madaschi, Vlad Naumovski, Teeboy Kamara.