Tara Murray
Luck has fallen Mill Park’s way in the FV state league 2 north-west competition as it fights for a promotion spot.
While Upfield is the runway leader and on track for the championship and promotion, the second promotion spot remains up for grabs.
After 14 rounds, Mill Park sits second on the table, but are just four points ahead of sixth placed Hoppers Crossing.
Mill Park coach Kevin Theuma said some interesting results in the past month had kept them in second spot.
“We’ve had some in different form in the last month or so,” he said. “We’ve been a bit up and down, with a couple of wins, a couple of draws and a loss.
“We’ve been quite lucky, the teams around us are keeping us in second spot. Everyone around us is dropping points they would not normally drop.”
Theuma said while two teams were expected to be promoted, there had been talk about a restructure as well at the end of the season.
He said they would just continued to focus on finishing as high as they could and see what happens from there.
Theuma said the biggest thing for them in recent weeks was they weren’t taking their chances when they were there. That was the case against another promotion hopeful Altona East Phoenix a couple of rounds ago, with the Phoenix taking home the points.
In its most recent match, Mill Park beat bottom side Geelong Rangers, 4-1, in good signs going forward.
“With nothing between second and sixth, we want to go on a little run,” Theuma said.
“The pressure is on us. We wanted to be thereabouts and finishing top or second would be a good achievement and we want to see where that takes us.
“We want to be fairly consistent and finish on a roll and hopefully get some good results.”
While some other sides are adding players in the transfer window, Theuma said they were set to stick with the group that they have already.
He said they had put together a strong team, it was about getting them all on the park at the same time.
“We had a few injuries, but we’re almost back to full strength,” he said. “I would prefer to back the ones we had.
“If someone pops up, who is amazing, we’ll look at them.”
Mill Park are set to face Hume United on Saturday. Hume is sitting ninth.
