A win against Gulgong last week bumped Wellington into third on the Dubbo District Soccer Association’s third grade ladder, just one point short of second place to qualify the Warriors for a place in the elimination final on Sunday.

Team captain, Kyle Nonnenmacher, said the Warriors are confident in breaking the current one-all lock with Westside.

“I think we’ll win,” he said.

“We have a good, solid mix of youth and experience – Damien Beattie (coach) has brought through a young crop of talented players, in particular goalkeeper Samuel Biles which we were missing last year.”

The return “older, wiser heads” in right wing David Grant has also proven beneficial to the squad. 

Nonnenmacher said the Warriors have spent the week focusing on their game plan.

“We’ve been focusing on keeping the ball in possession, playing to our strengths and making the ball work for us rather than matching their physicality,” he said.

“If we can avoid that we should be pretty sweet.”

Coach Damien Beattie said his team had done well to finish one point of second place.

Heading into the weekend’s clash he expects the Warriors to be hungry for the ball and use width in attack.

“I’m expecting Samuel to have a good game in goal and defender Nick Streicher to be solid and to get on the scoreboard,” Beattie said.

Sunday’s winner will progress onto the next round against Newtown or RSL 78s.

“We expect RSL to win, they’ve been a standout team in the competition,” Nonnenmacher said.

The game kicks off at 11am at Pioneer Park. All supporters are encouraged to head along and cheer the Warriors to a win.