Courtesy: Vital Football/York City


Tranmere Rovers Futsal v York City Futsal

Thursday October 13 2016

FA National Futsal Super League North Division Two champions York City Futsal have their third game of the season when taking on Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 3.00pm).

The Minstermen moved to the top of the table after a comprehensive 5-1 success at last season's runners-up Derby in their latest fixture a fortnight ago, with goals from skipper Daniel Pedras (2), Jack Overton, Miguel De Vincente and Fabio Almeida.

That followed Junior Roberti's highly-rated side completing an 11-2 triumph at Manchester Academy on the opening weekend of the campaign - the always influential Pedras again claiming a brace alongside De Vincente (2), Robbie Bettson (2), Dylan McAvoy (2), Almeida, Mahiko Konishi and Jamie Bettson.

However, their enforced inactivity last weekend allowed both Loughborough Academy, 3-2 victors at Manchester, and Tranmere, also securing maximum points courtesy of a 7-5 success at bottom club Nottingham Trent, to leapfrog above them in the table.


Champions York City romped to a big victory in their opening game
Third-placed York are definitely without their four-goal captain Pedras for the trip to Birkenhead as the Portuguese-born playmaker is currently away on honeymoon.

But the visitors are boosted by the returns of his fellow countryman Joao Costa and England Under-19 international McAvoy, while there's also a debut for recent signing and Latvian top goalscorer Jevgenijs Drabovics.

"Tranmere is doing well," Brazilian head coach Roberti told us. "They are a new football club investing in Futsal and have a great structure, so they will be better every game.

"We had a week off and now we will need to get back on speed to make sure we can offer a good game," he continued. "We don't have our captain Daniel Pedras for this game as he is in honeymoon (good reason) and this is something to watch as Daniel's always been a key player.

"However, we have Joao Costa and Dylan McAvoy back and also the debut of Evgeny Drabovics. I am expecting a very hard game that we will need to make sure we do our best to get our third win and find a better place in the table."

Rovers have themselves won three of their opening four games after also narrowly accounting for Derby (7-6) and Durham (6-5) prior to beating Nottingham, with their sole defeat thus far arriving at new leaders Loughborough in a 10-4 scoreline last month.

But the hosts were reporting a number of injury problems ahead of the meeting with Samuel Garcia (cruciate ligament) already ruled out for at least nine months while Juan Carlos (Achilles), Jose Angel Pena (calf), Dan Read and Ed Bryers (both ankle) are similarly unavailable.

Tranmere's sidelined duo Garcia and Pena currently have eight goals between them this season, although Lucas Gomez Meier is likely to offer their biggest threat with already five goals in his three appearances.

The only other fixture scheduled for this weekend witnesses a fourth-in-the-table versus fifth clash with Liverpool entertaining Durham - once again at the same Prenton Park venue but with a later 6.00pm kick-off.

York City Futsal (from): Fabio Almeida, Jamie Bettson, Robbie Bettson, Anel Blazevic, James Briars, Philip Codd, Joao Costa, Miguel De Vincente, Jevgenijs Drabovics, Lewis Elliott, Michael Gratton, Mahiko Konishi, Demir Kurtovic, Dylan McAvoy, Cory McLeod, Mattia Novello, Jack Overton, Frederick Robinson, Florin Rotariu



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com