Maitland Magpies can jump into NPL finals contention with win over Olympic

The round 10 clash will provide the Magpies with an opportunity to bridge the gap on the top five of the Northern NSW NPL.

Maitland are eighth on nine points and are coming off a scoreless draw against Cooks Hill at home on Saturday, April 29.

The Magpies haven't lost since going down 1-0 to Weston at home in round five and have earnt draws against Broadmeadow and Edgeworth.

They were impressive in the 2-1 win against rivals Lambton Jaffas on Wednesday, April 26, only their second win of the season.

Assistant coach Gavin Woolfe said the side were disappointed to drop points against Cooks Hill after showing improvement in the past month.

"There's definitely been signs of improvement that's why it was incredibly disappointing to drop points on the weekend," he said.

"It was a pretty flat performance from us to be honest, we had obviously come off Edgeworth and Lambton in the two previous games and both were pretty physical and pretty demanding," he said.

"To their credit (Cooks Hill) they got us into a pretty decent battle and ended up grabbing a draw on us."

It doesn't get any easier for the Magpies, after Sunday's match at Olympic they will meet Adamstown on Wednesday for a fifth round Australia Cup tie before playing the same opponent next weekend.

Maitland will then have a catch-up game against Lake Macquarie the following Wednesday before hosting Lambton.

Centre-back Will McFarlane will return for the Magpies' against Olympic after serving a one-game suspension following his send-off against Lambton Jaffas.

Defender Tom Davies injured his hand against Lambton and will miss for 3-4 weeks.

Woolfe said the Jaffas win was Maitland's best of the year. "It was probably our best game, I think overall with the ball and defensively," he said.

"The last two or three years they've always been very good games against Jaffas, we've got a bit of history there and the boys were certainly up for it."

Woolfe said with the glut of games coming the Magpies way over the next fortnight, the side will have an opportunity to put itself amongst the finals race.

"We've set our mind to making those semi-finals and that is still absolutely within our reach," he said.

"Once we get into those semi-finals we think we can certainly cause some damage if we play our best footy."

Woolfe said midfield workhorse Charles Cox has been a highlight for Maitland.

"Charles has been really strong in the midfield for us, he covers a lot of territory in there and he's the constant - he's particularly strong there for us," he said.

"Braedyn (Crowley) has hit a little bit of form in the last couple of weeks as well and started to score some goals, he's coming off a little bit of an ankle injury.

"They've probably been the two standouts and Will McFarlane despite his send-off is always pretty solid in defence."

In other news: