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Back to work for Navy Blues
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Auckland City FC switch their minds back to domestic duties on Sunday with a crunch game against Hawke’s Bay United in Napier kicking off a hectic Stirling Sports Premiership schedule.
With the Nike Lunar New Year Cup trophy safely locked away in the Kiwitea Street clubrooms, the Navy Blues can resume focussing on the Stirling Sports Premiership. They must navigate a testing schedule of seven national league matches in 28 days to round off the regular season before switching attention momentarily to the OFC Champions League group stage.
While away in Hong Kong, Auckland City slipped one place to third in the Premiership with Waitakere United and Team Wellington sharing a three point lead over the Navy Blues at the top of the charts.
Meanwhile, as a sign of just how close this season’s playoff race is, Hawkes’ Bay United are just one point behind Auckland in sixth place.
Crucially though, the Navy Blues have two games in hand over most of the league but as Mario Bilen was quick to point out those games mean nothing if the Navy Blues can’t get themselves up mentally and collect points, especially against fellow playoff contenders.
“It will be hard to put aside the win in the New Year Cup but we have to,” said the Navy Blues skipper, “we don’t have a choice.”
“We must win this next game against Hawke’s Bay. Every game against them is tough whether you play at home or away. So we expect a hard game and I hope we recover well in the next couple of days.”
Bilen’s elevation to the captaincy is a result of the injury to defender Angel Berlanga who will be a notable absence in the next few weeks as he recovers from a broken nose.
The travelling squad touched down on Thursday and will resume training on Friday night. Navy Blues coach Ramon Tribulietx echoed Bilen’s thoughts about the need to get into their work quickly.
“We spoke about it before we left New Zealand,” Trubulietx said.
“We believed we deserved to have an opportunity like that but with a commitment that when we got back we made sure we did our job in the national league because right now that’s the most important thing for us.”
“These two games have helped us sharpen up. The level of football has been very good and hopefully we’ll be better when we get back into the Stirling Sports Premiership. I think we’ve got time enough to recover from this trip and these two games and put in a good performance on Sunday.
“Hawke’s Bay is a team that usually do well defensively against us and will require us to be at our best to break them down.
Match Details
Stirling Sports Premiership
Sunday 5 February, 2017
Hawke’s Bay United v Auckland City FC
Bluewater Stadium, Napier
Kick-off: 4.35pm NZDT
Live on Sky Sport 4
#HBvAC
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Player Profiles
Table
| Position | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | AC | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 7 | 18 |
| 2 |  | WS | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 6 | 18 |
| 3 |  | BU | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 13 |
| 4 |  | ES | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 12 |
| 5 |  | BO | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 12 |
| 6 |  | MN | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 10 |
| 7 |  | AU | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| 8 |  | TC | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 19 | 6 |
| 9 |  | MU | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 25 | 3 |
| 10 |  | WR | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 2 |
| 11 |  | EB | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 2 |
| 12 |  | HW | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 2 |
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