MARIST FC has secured the second spot for the grand final of the Telekom S-league (TSL) Championship against Warriors this weekend.
Marist edged their way past a tough Malaita Kingz FC side on Thursday to give them the chance to battle for this year’s TSL Championship title.
Marist coach, Jerry Allan is grateful for the win however reiterated the importance of maintaining a high performance and organization of play.
“I would like to thank the players for today’s (Thursday’s) win.
“It was a close fight but we managed a win.
“We had some chances but I don’t know why we couldn’t convert them into goals.
“Even though a team plays bad football but score goals, they win and if a team plays good football but does not score then they will lose, that’s football.
“So the win is a bonus for us, what matters most is how we organize ourselves because we have important matches ahead, especially the Oceania Champions League quarter finals so we must maintain a top form and be organized.”
Allen also commended the young Kingz side for a tough match played under a rainy condition yesterday..
He admitted the young Kingz side played well and Marist was lucky to have scored an early goal which they defended until full time.
“The Malaita Kingz team played well today despite having young experienced players.
“We were lucky for the early goal by Junior Fa’arodo, the pressure kept coming but we managed to maintain it.
“I told my players that despite going up against an inexperienced side like Kingz, we need to remain focused and organized and they did so,” he said.
Marist scored the winning goal in the first half by Henry Fa’arodo Junior.
It was a tough match which saw Kingz mounting pressure on the TSL runner ups all throughout the match.
Young Charles Mani and made a series of strong runs upfront giving the Marist defense a lot of work to keep him at bay.
The finals are scheduled for Sunday.
By CARLOS ARUAFU
