Sunday's Match of the Round at Turner Park between finals-rivals Cessnock City and South Cardiff is crucial to the fortunes of both teams.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Gunners returned to devastating form with a 4-0 rout over Singleton last weekend and in doing so, moved back into the top four while the Hornets suffered a significant setback in going down 2-0 to Wallsend.
South Cardiff also climbed up to third place on goal difference, with a confidence-boosting 1-0 win over New Lambton midweek, putting them four points above the fifth spot.
Cessnock will cherish returning to their favourite ground. They have won four straight games on their home paddock including a huge, recent victory against frontrunners Cooks Hill.
South Cardiff have scored more than double the number of goals Cessnock have, but will be without leading goal-scorer Sam Ford due to injury, and will now look to the in-form Dino Fajkovic and Tom Butzmann to lead the attack.
The Gunners also put six past the Hornets last time they met, although the Hornets are a vastly different side since then and will be fired up to keep their season alive.
A win for the Hornets would put them within a point of the Gunners in the race for the finals, and captain Greg Anderson said the team would do everything it can to give themselves a chance.
"All we can do is push hard for the results and get the most points out of the last four games and see how other results end up," Anderson said.
"It was a disappointing display against Wallsend, the squad has spoken about what was lacking but simply a case of being inconsistent hurt us again.
"Similar to the Cooks Hill (games), we have improved in areas where they (South Cardiff) hurt us and we have a game plan to try and get the result we need."
South Cardiff are now in a commanding position to land a finals spot and captain-coach Denis Fajkovic said they need to keep building on another solid performance.
"The most pleasing thing is the boys showed that they have fight in them, that performance (against New Lambton) obviously sets up the Cessnock game," Fajkovic said.
"The squad has impressed this week, we talked about all the consecutive games which have hurt us in the past, we have rotated the squad this week.
"We are happy and ready for Sunday's challenge."