Seventh-place Tailevu Naitasiri is working around their fitness ahead of the encounter against bottom-placed Tavua in Round 11 of the Digicel Fiji Premier League on Sunday.
Assistant coach Priyant Mannu said they badly lacked fitness in their 2-2 draw against Ba over the weekend.
“We have a solid strike force which means we can score some really good goals. We were losing against Ba and just tightened our forwards to avoid loss.”
“Our takeaway from the match is that Ba was a fit side and we lacked in that area. They were very physical and aggressive in their footwork which we failed to display.”
“We had been on football break for two weeks and that affected our fitness so we got off our guard but the team will continue its training and come back stronger.”
T/Naitasiri defeated Tavua 2-0 in the first Round but Mannu said they will not underestimate the gold miners and will need to better their defence as well.
“Due to lack of fitness, our set-piece play, ball movement and defence were affected.”
“Tavua is getting stronger and better weekly so we need to lift our performance and display a much better football in front of our home fans this week.”
T/Naitasiri will host Tavua in a double-header of matches at 1pm at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori followed by the match between leaders Rewa and Suva at 3pm.
