Ugle Fabrications La Fiamma’s season looking better but they can’t relax against Woodvale

La Fiamma have saved their season by taking crucial points in past two rounds, but the team can’t take their foot off the pedal against the league’s bottom side this week. The Reds were fighting for promotion last season, but this season they have been fighting against relegation with a streak of costly mistakes and mishaps costing them much-needed points. However, things have turned around in the past fortnight after they tied with Murdoch on the road and got a 2-1 victory over second-placed Joondanna at home on Saturday. La Fiamma player Tom Mitic said the team came into the Joondanna game with a lot more confidence, which worked in their favour. “I felt the whole team was a lot more confident this week from the previous game last week, so we took that to this week’s game and just played very well,” he said. “I think it’s put us on the right track now to start getting results towards the end of the season and save the season.” Getting the win against the Blues was massive for their season, and it was helped by standout performances from key players. “There was a few lads that stood out and played really well. Daniel Walsh played really well in the centre midfield and (Ahmad Jamalul Faizal Hatsanee) scored a very crucial first goal, which was really good,” Mitic said. After their last victory, La Fiamma will now play the league’s cellar-dweller Woodvale, but Mitic said the game would not be an easy one for them. “Woodvale has always been a weird team for us, so they’re down the bottom and a very weak team, but we always seem to struggle against weaker teams and always perform against higher-end teams,” he said. “So we’re going to just have to play a lot more aggressive and confident against them.” With the season nearly over, La Fiamma experimented by changing around their back four, which worked in their favour last week. “We’ve switched a few players up and we’ve had a new left back Armani (Liswaniso), and a new centre back partnership with Luke Hancock and Reza (Mazlan),” Mitic said. “Athallah (Aman) went to right back, so we changed our defence and made it a bit younger and faster, and it seemed to work.” Defensive pressure is something that La Fiamma had previously lacked and having a side they are confident in will help the whole team play more aggressively. “It’s always good when the back four can hold themselves and defend well together, it gives the rest of the team a lot more confidence and they don’t have to worry about losing the ball too much,” Mitic said. “I think that four will stay for next week’s game for sure, they’ll cement their spot in for next week.” La Fiamma will travel to face Woodvale on Sunday, September 10, at Timberlane Park, with kick off at 3pm.