Rec’s long wait for league game ends with a derby
IT HAS been 101 days since Vale Rec last played in the FNB Priaulx League.
No wonder the champions are looking forward to getting back into league action tonight when they host North at the Corbet Field.
They last played at the end of November with coach Mark Romeril saying his side were just happy to play in the league again.
‘It doesn’t do us any favours,’ he said.
‘It’s no-one’s fault but the fixtures haven’t helped us. We were front-loaded really, we had a load of games when a few of our guys were struggling with knocks at the start of the season, and then we hit form and had 10 games to go. We’ve won all five [so far] and now we have five to go and haven’t played since November.’
Romeril said he expects tonight’s game to be a challenge.
‘It’s usually our hardest fixture, these games are always really close,’ he said.
Rec are now seven points behind St Martin’s after the leaders beat Rovers 2-1 on Saturday.
‘Saints have one hand on the trophy really, but there hasn’t really been a big game in the title race this season yet,’ said Romeril.
‘We have five games to go and we need to be winning all five, and that starts tomorrow.’
Their opponents have a busy two weeks ahead of them, as North also play St Martin’s on Friday.
‘We’re looking forward to it, we have a busy few weeks ahead,’ said coach Charlie Le Prevost.
‘Both [St Martin’s and Vale Rec] want us to do them a favour with the next few games.’
North’s squad will be bolstered tonight with a handful of players returning to action.
‘Paris [Pereira] should be back and Liam and Kez [Mahon] are back now, as well as a few others,’ said Le Prevost.
Kick off is 7.30pm at Corbet Field.
