THEY'VE gone through injury and suspension troubles of late but with several players back among their ranks Western NSW FC hope their first NSW Premier Leagues 4 victory can come their way this Saturday.
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Western remains the only side in the competition without a win through their nine games to date but they get a chance to end that run when they travel to play South Coast Flame FC at Wollongong.
The Western men remain without regular goalkeeper Jordan Bruce for the next two games following his suspension against Hawksbury City FC a fortnight ago but they're making inroads with their attack.
Western produced one of their better performances this season when they went down 5-3 to league leaders Fraser Park FC at Proctor Park last round.
That level of football is what coach Mark Rooke believes can earn his side their share of success down the line.
"If we can perform like that on a consistent basis then we'll certainly be picking up some wins very soon, and I'm hoping this weekend is one of them," he said.
"We spoke about that after the game. We want to replicate that performance and take a lot of those aspects into this game coming up.
"From all reports South Coast are quite a young side but they picked up three players in the transfer window.
"They lost last weekend against a nine-man Hurstville team in the last few minutes of the game and they'll certainly be hurting after losing to a team down two players at the end.
We want to replicate [last round's] performance.
- Mark Rooke on last round's match
"If we can land an early blow hopefully the demons can come back to haunt them again."
Aiding the cause for Western will be the return of several players this weekend.
"We're starting to build up our squad, with a couple of injuries that are rectifying. This weekend sees the return of Nikki Spice, who hasn't kicked a ball for us all year," Rooke said.
"Last week we saw the return of Nathan Doungmanee and he hadn't kicked a ball for us in around two and a half years because of injury.
"We still have Kyle Aubin out and the other returning player from injury that's starting to show some fruition is Ryan Campbell. He's been playing some fabulous football."
Western want to show that they're an adaptable squad when they tinker with their structures for Saturday's game.
"We went a bit heavier through the midfield last weekend but this game is leaning towards us going back towards our normal shape to help us exploit South Coast in the wider areas," Rooke said.
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