Avondale will be looking to claim their first win of the 2020 NPL Victoria season this Saturday night when they take on the Altona Magic at Stead Park in Geelong.

The Avengers will be looking to bounce back from a tough loss in their opening match, falling 3-1 to a strong Oakleigh outfit last week at Jack Edwards Reserve.

Stung by injuries and disadvantaged further after having a player sent off mid-way through the first half, Avondale were simply outplayed by the Cannons. 

But despite the poor result, head coach Zoran Markovski believes his side can rebound this week against Altona.

“It [the loss to Oakleigh] is a massive wake up call for our boys, but we’ll learn from it and move on,” he said on Avenger Radio.

“We’ve moved on … we’ve worked on a few things we set ourselves a target to match Altona this week.”

Avondale will be hoping to repeat the success they had over the Magic last season. 

The Avengers completed the double over Altona in 2019, winning 3-0 and 2-0 in their two clashes.

After missing the opening match due to injuries, star striker Liam Boland and defender Matthew Reid are both a chance to make their season debut against the Magic.

Game time:

6:00pm
Saturday February 22nd
vs Altona Magic
@ Stead Park

U20s – 4:00pm
U18s – 2:00pm

Last time they met:

Last season
Avondale 3 – 0 Altona (Round 11)
Altona 0 – 2 Avondale (Round 24)

Avondale Squad:

1. Chris Oldfield (GK)
2. Scott Hilliar
3. James Riccobene
4. Charles Beverly
5. Matthew Reid
7. Stefan Zinni
9. Liam Boland
10. Jonatan Germano
11. Yusuf Ahmed
13. Yitay Towns
14. Blake Carpenter
16. Jye Spiteri
17. Phillip Riccobene
18. Tasuku Sekiya
19. Brandon Lundy
22. Stefan Valentini
27. Dillon Jakupi
33. Joey Katebian
44. Rory Brian (GK)

Altona Squad:

1. Shane Viitakangas (GK)
2. Tony Stojkovski
3. Williman Nuttal
4. Charlie Fry
5. Brad Murray
6. John Stojcevski
7. Nicholas Sette
8. Jungho Kim
9. Michiel Hemmen
10. Ben Liftin (C)
11. Maarten Hemmen
12. Mohamad Mohamad
13. David Trifunov
16. Stefan Ristic
17. Bonel Obradovic
18. Sami Nour
19. Lucas Nedanovski
20. Griffin McMaster
26. Akos Surjan