The Maitland Magpies will be without co-captain Jimmy Thompson for Wednesday night's crucial top of the table clash against Charlestown Azzurri at Cooks Square Park.
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Thompson and his co-captain Braedyn Crowley have formed the most formidable front two in the competition this season with Crowley topping the league scoring with 20 goals from 14 matches and Thompson second with 12 from the same number of games.
Magpies coach Mick Bolch said Thompson was a big out, but he was confident Crowley can get the job done up front in his absence as the Magpies try to reel in a three point gap Charlestown had established at the top of the table with a 3-0 win against Weston on Saturday.
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The biggest issue for the Magpies will be to plug a leaking defence which has seen them concede 16 goals in the past six matches at an average of 2.6 goals a match.
"It's a six-point game, if they win they go six points clear and with only five games left it sort of takes us out of the running for the premiership (top at end of home and away season). It's a game we can't lose," Bolch said.
"It looks like we should have Jacob Bailey available to play. We are ready to go, they are all keen as mustard. It was a really sharp session on Monday night.
"We've got to tighten up defensively. We are leaking too many goals.
"We are scoring plenty (42 goals in 14 games), we're second behind Charlestown (43 goals in 15 games) with the most number of goals.
"Both teams have got plenty of goals in them, the victory goes to which team stands up defensively."
The other huge issue looming is the weather. The reserves and under-18 games scheduled for Tuesday were cancelled after rain made the Cooks Square Park surface unplayable.
"I just hope there isn't too much more rain ahead of Wednesday as we might not get on," Bolch said.
"The problem is we've had so much rain it just takes a couple of millimetres and there's water on the ground again because it has nowhere to go.
"They've extended the season three weeks already which is extraordinary itself. Northern (NSW Football) are doing everything they can, but in the end you can't do anything about the weather."
Bolch said any efforts to correct Maitland's defensive problems had been hampered by the inability to train regularly either through a busy schedule of games or grounds not being available because of the rain.
"There is nowhere to train, all the indoor places are booked out or running competitions. It's impossible to get on over at Lake Macquarie. You can only do so much road running or running around the park. Your preparation of the team is limited, you worry about soft tissue injuries," he said.
"You can't work on stuff other than with the whiteboard. It's hard to be improving and working on things.
"It's been different ends of the spectrum for us, we had seven games in 30 days and we couldn't train because we were just playing so much and just trying to recover and now we've played one game in the last three weeks but it's been too wet to train.
"The boys are fresh and ready to go but again it's in the hands of the weather gods."
Bolch said Azzurri had quality across the park and it was up to the whole team to lift in defence
"We need to limit their chances, but they have quality all over the park. They have three former A-League players in Nigel Boogaard, Taylor Regan and Jacob Melling and they've got quality and plenty of pace up front.
"Young (Harry) Frendo is doing well, young (Riley) Smith and Regan Lundy are all pretty sharp, so we've got to be at our best, no-mistake football.
"We need to concentrate on our roles, little errors are costing us whether it's a lapse in concentration for a minute or two or not completely understanding roles. It's one we've got to fix pretty quick."