La Fiamma frustrated at home and away as first home game may be forfeited

Ugle Fabrications La Fiamma may not have a chance to put their Perth frustration to bed this weekend as Northern City FC appear likely to forfeit what would be the Reds’ first home game of the season. After a frustrating 1-0 loss to Perth Royals despite the Reds having the better opportunities, with the winner coming in the closing stages of the game, the Reds were hoping to get back on track against Northern City this weekend. However, they may not get the chance with Northern City likely to forfeit due to a lack of numbers as most of their players will be celebrating the end of Ramadan. Captain Lachlan Gray said they had tried to come up with alternatives but a game appeared unlikely at this stage. “A lot of their team is Muslim so they finished their Ramadan this week and they’ve asked us to reschedule and the only time that we can reschedule is mid-June,” he said. “But a lot of our team wouldn’t be available at that time as it was scheduled as a competition bye, it wouldn’t be a smart move on our behalf to change a fixture to benefit the opposition team. “We’ve given them a couple of options, we said we can play them on Sunday, rather than Saturday night, so just waiting to see what they want to do, but at this stage it seems unlikely to go ahead.” A forfeit would gift La Fiamma three points and a 3-0 win which Gray said was nice but they would much rather play. “It is disappointing, not gonna be able to play our first fixture at home, we want to play but we also don’t want to jeopardise anything in our chase for promotion,” he said. “We asked them last year to change a fixture for us and they didn’t so we were forced to play two games with 16 guys, which we actually won both. “No doubt the three points will help and if the Royals can do us a favour, Alkimos, who we think are going to be our biggest challengers this season, it would help keep the table tight.” On the pitch Gray said the loss in Perth was frustrating as they lacked quality in the final third, missing their top two stikers. “We were on the attack for most of the game and hit the crossbar a few times, we could have easily have been three or four balls up in the first half,” he said. “We just, I guess, at first game in, kind of struggled to find the net. “We were defensively good, they probably had only a handful of opportunities all game and their goal came from a set piece. “It was not the fairytale beginning that we’d hoped for but nonetheless we still played well.” If the game does go ahead this weekend the Reds will have both Al Mupotaringa and Kumbirai Dzoma back in the side as well as Armani Liswaniso. “We’re were very quick to move the ball but having the little bit of extra flair that those boys add certainly makes a big difference to our side and makes us more threatening,” he said. The game is scheduled for 6 pm on April 21 if it goes ahead.