By ADEM SARICAOGLU
ALTONA East Phoenix coach Terry Antoniadis knows he’s going to face some very stiff competition in Football Federation Victoria’s upcoming State League One North-West season.
Phoenix was last year part of the old State League Two and could only muster seven wins and five draws to finish seventh in the North-West Division.
With the implementation of the National Premier Leagues competitions taking effect this week, the new SL1 is now the third tier competition of Victorian soccer.
But Phoenix is this year going to be joined by local rivals and former second-tier clubs Altona Magic and Western Suburbs – which will enhance the standard from week to week.
“We’re hoping we’ll be OK,” Antoniadis said.
“We’re aware it’s going to be difficult and we’re aware that the league will be more competitive this year with the additions of Western Suburbs and Altona Magic, who are the established clubs at higher levels.
“Hopefully we’ve prepared accordingly, but it’s also been exciting because for a lot of our players, it’s a good opportunity to prove themselves against players of a higher calibre and to play against these clubs that they haven’t played against before.”
Antoniadis is looking forward to leading a much healthier and largely unchanged squad from the one that finished seventh in 2013.
Kieran McDowell and goalkeeper Andy Bourakis have both departed over the summer months, but Antoniadis is confident that if his side can avoid a repeat of its injury troubles from 12 months ago, it should enjoy a competitive season.
“There’s no opposition where you can say you’ll pencil in three points, but we’d also like to think sides wouldn’t like playing us,” Antoniadis said.
“We want to be competitive every time we play and make life as difficult as possible for our opponents and play to our strengths, and I think if we do that, then we should be OK.”
Altona East plays Western Suburbs on the opening weekend of the new season on 30 March.
