Ugle Fabrication La Fiamma hoping to get their season going on the road after frustrating week

Ugle Fabrications La Fiamma are back on the road this weekend after a frustrating week off the field dealing with Football West in what has been a stuttering start for the Reds this season.

Northern City was likely to forfeit last weekend’s game due to a lack of players before Football West stepped in at the eleventh hour, stating the game must be played, forcing the fixture to be moved to September 30, a week after the season is supposed to finish.

Compounding the frustration is if Northern City have nothing to play for in terms of promotion or title hopes come the end of the year, which seems likely, they may forfeit the match anyway much like Forrestfield did at the end of last season, making the move a pointless endeavour.

“I’m quite frustrated, to be honest,” captain Lachlan Gray said, “When we’ve wanted to reschedule and it can’t be done we’ve had to deal with forfeits or playing with a reduced squad, but it seems, in this case, they made it happen.”

The forfeit, along with a bye next week, means the Reds will not play a home game until May 13 — over a month into the season.

“It’s kind of sucky for us at the moment not being able to play at home, we can’t wait to just get stuck into the season and feel like we’ve properly got going,” Gray said.

Despite the frustrations, Gray said they would use the adversity to give them extra drive in the match against Forrestfield this weekend.

“It gives us more to play for, being the only country team in the comp we’re always seen as the outsiders or underdogs and it’s a position we like to play from,” he said.

“It’s still early but we know we need points, we don’t want to be trying to catch up at the end of the season.”

However, the Reds will once again be without Al Mupotaringa, Kumbirai Dzoma and Armani Liswaniso.

“It’s hard to get the most out of training without some of our best guys there,” Gray said.

“But we still have a good side, we just have to find the back of the net which is something we’ve struggled with for some time. We just have to make it happen.”

La Fiamma kick-off against Forrestfield United at 3pm on April 30 at Crazy Domains Stadium.