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SALFORD will have to make do without prop Stephen Nash in their Grand Final Eliminator with Celtic Crusaders.
Ready to rock
Dave Lawrenson11/ 9/2008
SALFORD Reds face arguably their biggest game of the season tonight – and head coach Shaun McRae is tipping his troops to rise to the occasion.
The Reds’ unbeaten home record in National League One and a place in the Grand Final will be at stake in the televised clash of the titans with Celtic Crusaders tonight, Thursday, September 11, kick-off 7.30pm.
And, with prop Stephen Nash having undergone wrist reconstruction surgery earlier this week, McRae has vowed to field the same 17 players that lost at Celtic 20-10 in the final game of the regular season nearly three weeks ago.
That means Karl Fitzpatrick, Mat Gardner, Stuart Littler, John Wilshere, Paul White, Stefan Ratchford, Richard Myler, Adam Sidlow, Malc Alker, Craig Stapleton, Ian Sibbit, Luke Adamson, Jordan Turner, Robbie Paul, Stephen Bannister, Phil Leuluai and Paul Highton are the men charged with making home advantage count in what McRae labels ‘a massive fixture for the club’.
McRae said: "Our only injured player going into the game is Stephen Nash. He’s been struggling with a wrist problem for a couple of months and we’ve decided, on medical advice, to get it sorted out now as opposed to leaving it until the end of the season. He’ll be out for four to six months so we hope he’ll be back for the start of next season.
"Everyone else is ready and raring to go. The players have looked very fit, very fresh and very focused in training this week. They know full well how much is at stake on Thursday. We want to be going straight into the Grand Final and I am confident that the players will do themselves justice.
"They rose to the occasion in the Northern Rail Cup final against Doncaster and I am sure they will do so again in what is another huge game for us on Thursday.
"But we are playing a much stronger team this time. It is going to be a really tough game and I can see it coming down to small details and being decided by just one mistake or one moment of magic.
"It should be a cracking game between two very good teams.
"We have played Celtic three times this season, defeating them twice and losing against them once.
"We know what we have to do to beat them and it’s simply up to us to go out there and perform to the best of our ability.
"We have a proud home record to maintain having not lost at home in the league all season.
"And we know we can’t afford to cough up anywhere near as much possession as we did when we lost at Celtic in the league recently.
"It was wet and slippery that day and, with all of the bad weather we’ve had recently, we are expecting to come up against similar conditions on Thursday.
"If that is the case, we need to deal with it much better than we did last time and that is something I have been speaking to the players about this week."
Celtic have won their last four games and utility forward Neale Wyatt is their only injury doubt for the Grand Final Eliminator at the Willows.
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11/09/2008 at 15:54