Thu 18th Jan 2007

Sydney arrive in Brisbane late Friday morning with plenty of time to settle in, in preparation for Saturday night’s game. The weather conditions in Sydney leading up to this weekend have been conducive to the hot, Queensland conditions they are likely to play in.

Even if the temperature cools down, the heat will continue to be on Sydney in this do or die match with the roar of a large partisan crowd at Suncorp Stadium.

“It’s D-Day for the club. We’ve been there before and it’s a great opportunity to finish the season on a high” said Terry Butcher at training today.

“Queensland will have the same target as us though.”

“Despite having lost our last two games, I’ve been happy about the way we’ve played- except of course that we haven’t been able to put the ball in the back of the net. Sometimes it boils down to not just playing well but winning and taking the three points.”

“We have a big hole in our central defense with the loss of Mark Milligan and Terry McFlynn. We need to get a system that works with the players who are available like Talay and the system needs to be flexible enough to change through the game if necessary.”

“And as far as the ongoing talk about playing more that one up front is concerned, playing three or four forwards doesn’t guarantee you a win.”

“Queensland have put themselves in a great position with their recent wins against the top teams, Adelaide and Melbourne. The situation we also find ourselves is also self-inflicted, but we are out to prove a point. We’ve already overcome a lot of hurdles this year. This is just another one.”

Much of the media interest in Sydney for this game (other than injuries) has focused on Alex Brosque playing against his former club.

Having scored for Queensland against Sydney last season, Brosque is keen to turn the tide on his former club.

“I had a funny feeling it would come down to playing Queensland in the last game. We’re going to go out there and with everything we’ve got.” said Brosque.

“Personally I’d love to score the winning goal for Sydney on Saturday night.”