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Skipper calls for focus and consistency

Words: ACFC Media

Thursday 20 July 2023

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Auckland City FC captain Cam Howieson insists the Navy Blues don’t look too far ahead and take each game as it comes as they set their sights on Saturday’s Round 17 Northern League clash against Melville United in Hamilton.

With the competition fast approaching its business end City are still unbeaten in the league and sitting at the top of the table ahead of their closest rivals Eastern Suburbs on goal difference.

Although the title race couldn’t be any tighter, Howieson says the key to his side’s success is to remain focussed on just one game at a time.

“It’s about being consistent, obviously coming and doing the right things at training and make sure we are ready at the weekend.

“We are taking it game-by-game at the moment, we are not getting ahead of ourselves so our full focus is on Melville at the moment and we need to keep picking up points because it’s close up the top of the table,” explained the City skipper.

The Navy Blues have a perfect record against Melville with five wins from their five previous Northern League meetings but with the Hamilton based club only four point outside the top-four Howieson is expecting a stern test from the hosts on Saturday.

“They are a good side, they have a few young fellas coming up and it can be a really tricky fixture especially playing away and I’m sure it’s not going to be easy on the weekend.

“We have to be fully focussed because they are going to be fully focussed trying to get a top-four spot, we will be going down there to try to pick up three points and we are going to give our best shot,” said the Navy Blues skipper.

It will also be a crucial weekend for the Auckland City FC U23s who climbed to the top of the Lotto NRFL U-23 Premiership table with a win over Auckland United last weekend.

Travelling to Hamilton together with the young Navy Blues, Howieson is hoping that both sides can return to Auckland with all three points to consolidate their positions at the top.

“We have a few U23s that come and train with us quite often so yeah we will be travelling down with them early inn the morning and yeah we are hoping that they can get the three points as well, as we know they had a big win last weekend to claim top spot and hopefully we can do a double header with both teams winning on the weekend,” Howieson said.

Ends

Match Details
Northern League Round 17
Saturday, 22 July 2023
Melville United v Auckland City FC
Gower Park, Hamilton
Kick-off: 3.00pm

AC SQUAD: 1-Conor TRACEY (GK), 2- Mario ILICH, 3- Adam MITCHELL, 4-Christian GRAY, 5-Michael DEN HEIJER, 6-Dan MORGAN, 7-Cam HOWIESON (c), 8-Gerard GARRIGA, 9-Angus KILKOLLY, 10-Dylan MANICKUM, 11-Ryan DE VRIES, 12-Regont MURATI, 13-Nathan LOBO, 14-Jordan VALE, 15- Aidan CAREY, 16-Joseph LEE, 18. Sebastian CIGANDA (GK), 19-Liam GILLION, 20- Emiliano TADE, 21- Adam BELL, 22-Tong ZHOU. 24-Joe WALLIS (GK), 25-Takuya IWATA, 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