Unfortunately the first division team has not had the best preparation for the finals after their game was washed out with the field in Armidale deemed too wet to play on.

The first division team finished the home and away season in third position and are in winning form.

The second division team took the opportunity to play a catch up game from a previous washed out round against TAS in Armidale on Sunday coming home victors winning 2-1 in a close encounter.

Coach Robert Ferris said his team displayed guts and determination to pull off the win and secure their place in the finals.

“The second division team have played well all season, but we have let ourselves down at times with our fitness and sometimes straying from our game plan,” he said.

“But on the weekend we really did fight the game out to the last whistle.

“Jason Reed in goals was players player with a dominant performance in that position, he has recovered well from his hamstring injury earlier in the season and should make a return to the first division side for the finals.”

Mr Ferris said he was happy with how the Highlanders attacked the ball and made positive crosses in the forward half of the ground.

“Liam Muckenschnabel scored one goal and he was impressive up front for the whole game,” he said.

“Mal Donnelly scored our other goal off his head from a great cross and that put us up 2 nil at half time.”

Mr Ferris said his team will have to work a bit harder on the training track though because their fitness levels might have cost them the game and a finals berth.

“The second half saw the TAS team playing some fast soccer which really told on our unfit players and resulted in them scoring, which took the score to 2-1 in our favour,” he said.

“We managed to hold them out with a real gutsy win showing me my young players are starting to push themselves that extra bit to win a game.

“I’m looking forward to taking this team into the finals as I think I have the team to go all the way this year, especially after they worked so hard to get to the finals, the last few minutes of last weekends game I could see how hard the players were working, they really pushed themselves, it was a great effort.”

In the fourth division Coach Mel Symons said she was pleased with her team’s effort.

“Our Players player was Andrew Blackwell, our goal scorer was Sam Miller,  and all the team played well with strong passing and possession and tough tackling and hardness on the ball,” she said.

The finals draw will be announced next week.