La Fiamma look to ride winning momentum into Spartan clash

Ugle Fabrications La Fiamma are in a buoyant mood after their rare double away triumph over Northern City FC over the weekend and are hoping to ride that momentum into this weekend’s clash against Sutherlands Park.

La Fiamma has had a difficult run of results and their promotion hopes looked to be in tatters after eight players pulled out of the away trip last Sunday morning.

This meant just 18 players made the trip down to play across the reserves and league games and league captain Lachlan Gray said the team was feeling flat.

“The tone on the bus on the way down was certainly not what it usually is,” he said.

“I think we all believed it was going to be an average ride home and we certainly weren’t overly optimistic of our chances.”

But they soon saw their mood improve after the reserves got a 3-2 win, thanks to a double from Patrick O’Boyle, before a makeshift league team got the job done 2-0.

“We had our coach pull on the boots and play a full 90 minutes and had a few guys make their league debut,” Gray said.

“When we scored our first goal we almost couldn’t believe it, but the effort from the lads was unbelievable and we were on an absolute high when we won.”

Other results went their way and La Fiamma finished the round in fifth spot, just five points off second place and promotion.

Gray said it was a huge boon to the belief amongst the group.

“We were watching the results stream in on the way home and just absolutely everything went our way,” he said.

“But we have to keep our heads up and just play week to week and not get too ahead of ourselves.”

Their next challenge will be to overcome a feisty Sutherlands Park, with whom they drew 1-all in their last clash and saw Sutherlands finish with nine men after multiple red cards.

They are also under investigation for playing banned players in that fixture, as well as their involvement in a brawl with North City where weapons were allegedly drawn.

“We’ve talked about being a bit cautious this weekend but to not worry about Sutherlands and how they play their football,” Gray said.

“We just need to focus on our game and not get drawn into their physical style and we should come away with the win.”

La Fiamma will kick off at Salvatore Sciuto Stadium at 6pm on Saturday, August 20.