As we reach the pointy end of the football season, it's all on the line for four Clubs this weekend with two massive promotion/relegation games set to take place at Valley Park.
NPL2 will be increasing to 14 teams next season with the Preston Lions and Melbourne City having gained automatic promotion from NPL3, two more spots remain up for grabs.
Goulburn Valley Suns FC and Kingston City FC will fight for the right to stay in the division, while the development sides from Western United and Melbourne Victory can claim promotion. There is so much on the line, do not miss the action!
Goulburn Valley Suns FC v Western United FC
The first of the fixtures takes place Saturday 2:00PM, at Valley Park Events Centre. Goulburn Valley have had a challenging season, finishing bottom of NPL2 with four draws and 18 losses from 22 matches. A full 16 points adrift of eleventh placed Kingston City.
It's been a season to forget for the Suns, particularly for a Club that is so used to being in the upper reaches of the league. Despite the difficulties though, a game of such magnitude will surely bring out the best in Goulburn Valley.
A positive has been their ability to find the net in recent weeks, scoring in the last three fixtures of the season.
Ryan Brooks and Shogo Osawa scored in the final round's 4-2 defeat to Brunswick City and prior to that, a Faisal Sakhizada goal was enough for the side to share the spoils with Kingston City at The Grange Reserve in a 1-1 draw.
With 19 goals scored all season, getting on the front foot early will be vital for the Suns. Of the 19 goals they have scored this season George Murrihy and Matthew Breeze lead the way with three goals each.
If they can take recent form into the game they may fancy their changes of troubling the Western United decence, which has only managed four clean sheets this season.
Western United ended the NPL3 season third on the table, winning 12, drawing three, and losing seven matches.
Sabit Ngor has been United’s most prolific threat in front of goal with 11 goals for the season, three behind golden boot winner Archie Macphee of Nunawading City FC.
The A-League development side’s biggest winning margin of the season was three goals and they achieved this four times, against Nunawading City (round one), North Sunshine Eagles (round 10), Whittlesea Ranges (round 13), and Geelong SC (round 22).
In their last game of the regular season, Western United defeated eighth-placed Geelong SC 4-1 at Valley Park Events Centre.
Star striker Sabit Ngor scored a first-half hat trick and Noah Botic scored in the 89th minute with a simple tap-in at the near post.
With both glory and heartbreak on the line, both sets of players will be ready to leave it all on the park.
Kingston City Melbourne Victory
On Sunday, Kingston City FC and Melbourne Victory will clash at 2:00PM once again at Valley Park.
NPL2 side Kingston will be frustrated to find themselves in this play-off. In the fight to stay out of the bottom two, they were unable to secure a crucial victory in the final rounds of the season, finishing an agonising one point away from safety.
In the final straight, Kingston recorded three draws in four games, with the only loss a tight 2-1 defeat to high-flying North Geelong Warriors. The side's form has been far from bad, but knowing they were that solitary point away from safety will sting the Club from Melbourne's south east.
Triantafilos Skapetis has led the way for Kingston on the scoresheet this season with nine goals, while Giordano Marafioti has also played a key role with eight goals.
In Round 22 it was all on the line for Kingston as they came up against fifth placed Bulleen Lions.
Despite coming into the game as underdogs, Kingston rose to the occasion and scored the opening goal through Philip Petreski in the 12th minute.
Bulleen wasn’t down for long as captain Ben Everson levelled the game in the 31st minute and the two sides headed into half-time unable to be separated. Neither team was unable to break the deadlock in the second half and Kingston City was forced to settle for a 1-1 draw.
Melbourne Victory ended their season fourth in NPL3 with 12 wins for the season, one point away from Western United in third position. Victory’s biggest victory of the season came in round eight when they defeated Ballarat City 6-0.
Lleyton Brooks was the star of the match with a hat trick, while Luka Prso and Adem Duratovic scored a goal each.
Adem Duratovic is Melbourne’s leading goal scorer this season with nine goals and Binyam Kebede is the next best with five goals from 22 matches.
Victory head into the game having lost three of their past five matches, 1-0 to Nunawading City, 4-0 to North Sunshine Eagles and 2-0 to Western United. Despite that the side has enjoyed a strong season and spent much of the year in finals contention.
With Kingston desperate to stay up and Victory eyeing promotion this contest promises fireworks.
While we encourage all fans to get down and support the teams, if you can't make it we've got you covered. All games will be streamed LIVE & FREE on NPL.TV.