Preview: 8th Match vs Floriana Published on: 19-10-2012
Yet another derby is with us. This is the game that I always call, “The Supporters Game”. For the past two seasons that I had been making part of Valletta FC, I always looked forward for every game we play against Floriana. It is simple, seeing our supporters with their boiling hearts for our team gives all of us that extra pump to reach the positive results as we did against this side in the last couple of years.
Floriana are coming from a double score draw against Qormi, which puts them in the seventh place of the table. The Greens had mixed results and fortunes in their last three games, by collecting a win vs Rabat, lost against Mosta and drew their last encounter against Qormi. The Floriana's retro guard conceded nothing less than 11 goals and in the seven games that they played their forward line found the net eleven times. During the last week the Irish strengthen their squad with a 38 year old goalkeeper (Tony Warner) and an ex Arsenal midfielder (Frances Jeffers) which for the last couple of years were playing in the conference league in England.
On the other side our Gaffer, did not have the most relaxing past ten days! After the point earned in the last game against B'Kara, the Valletta clan had been hit with a hurricane of injuries. After the injury of our lefty Ryan Fenech, injuries hit other two left footed players in our defence, Ian Azzoppardi and Dyson Falzon. Just before the national team left for the Ceck Republic, Edmond Agius felt an irritant pain in his right sole. Although our medical team did and are still doing their best to recover any of the injured players, it is nearly very hard to have any of the said players with us on the bench or on the pitch for this derby.
Although we have all these injuries, We are all prepared to get out for this match with high tempo to bring home with us nothing less than 3 points, which for us it does not mean only three points but, 13 point difference from the greens.
At last but not less, you, our supporters which like all of us are looking forward for this game, will surely be there in body and spirit during the 90 minutes. I am sure that the players will put on that extra gear when they hear all those lion's roars, coming out of the enclosure and from the millennium stand. This will be another game that creates goose bumps for all of us when we emerge out of the tunnel, with all the support that only you...... THE VALLETTA SUPPORTERS know how to do.
I wish all of us the best of luck for this first derby of season 2012/13.
Jerry
