Namoi United ready to start a finals push against the Mountain Goats this Saturday

The Northern Inland Premier League first grade competition has been a season of what-ifs and near misses for Namoi United’s top team so far in 2024, and coach Neil Brayshaw is eager for his side to start showing its true potential.

The first hurdle was always going to be gelling players from the three clubs as the team is made up of players from Narrabri, Wee Waa and Moree.

They cleared that early on and also cleared the second hurdle, which was proving that they belong in the comp by being competitive.

The next major hurdle for them is to start winning more games.

Despite playing some impressive soccer across their past few fixtures against quality opposition, they have let deserved points slip from their grasp.

Before a round 12 bye last weekend, they led 2023 minor premiers Oxley Vale Attunga 2-0 at Hogan Oval in the 11th round of the season with just 15 minutes remaining after Cooper Brayshaw fired in two classy goals in the space of two minutes just after the hour-mark.

However, they could not capitalise on that lead and conceded a pair of penalty goals late in the game as it ended up 2-all.

They walked away from that match with a dreaded feeling that two points had slipped from their grasp, just as they finished their round eight and nine games against northern conference leaders Armidale City Westside and the defending champions South Armidale United feeling like they had let a point slip on each occasion as they were beaten 3-2 in both games but had chances to equalise and also conceded avoidable goals.

The combined Narrabri/Wee Waa/Moree team is now on eight points following two wins, two draws and five losses so far.

That has them fifth on the southern conference ladder behind the Hillvue Rovers (9), North Companions (19), OVA (20) and Moore Creek (22).

The top three from each conference qualify for the finals, so Namoi United have some work to do across the final two months of the regular season to get themselves into the top three.

That starts this Saturday when they return to Hogan Oval and challenge the top-ranked southern conference outfit Moore Creek for the first time this season.

The Mountain Goats have impressed so far in 2024, having won seven games, drawn won and lost three.

They have scored 62 goals so far in their 11 games, which is 15 more than Armidale City Westside who are next best with 47.

Namoi United are yet to keep a clean sheet this year and will face an uphill battle against Moore Creek, but Neil Brayshaw wants to see his players put themselves in a position to win the game, as they have done in recent weeks, but this time go on to get the job done.

“We’ve got a fair bit to do to catch up on North Companions, but we’ve got a run of home games now which will help,” Brayshaw said.

“I’m happy with the way we’ve been playing. We’ve just been so unlucky.

“In our last four games we’ve lost 3-2 twice and had a 2-all draw and we could have won those three games.

“We’ve been up against really good sides and we’ve been in those games but we’ve just done some silly things that have cost us.

“We just need to work on our game management. What we’ve been doing to put us in these positions to win, we need to do for the whole game.

“We need to not go away from what has got us there.

“I can’t fault the players’ efforts though, which is the best thing about this season.

“I think we can still make the finals but it starts this weekend against one of the best sides in the competition in Moore Creek.

“We know we can challenge the best sides and we need to go out and show that on Saturday.

“Moore Creek are fit and fast and they come at you all day. We saw that from them at the Johnson Cup.

“They are beatable though and it’s a challenge for us now to get the job done against them.”