SMS make semi finals again

A fairly comfortable 14-5 victory over Parry-Dise City FC on Sunday evening guaranteed SMS yet another semi-final place against opposition yet to be decided. This season has been disrupted by the departure of midfielder and playmaker, Mandz Singh, who returned to the UK at the end of January, and he has been much missed. The period that has followed has been chaotic as the team sought to find suitable replacements through the introduction of a number of new faces. Bryce Harbridge, Aaron Ryan, Tom Botsman and Lachie McLeod have all been trialled and bring their own qualities to the squad, but SMS still lack that creative player who can seamlessly stitch the defence and attack together.

This match up, against a poor Parry-Dise City FC team, saw SMS introduce two further new players, Abdul and Khaled Alenezi, and if their first performances were anything to go by, the future of SMS is in good hands. Khaled was tricky and pacey and caused the opposition plenty of problems as he weaved his way around midfield, launching and supporting attacks in a good partnership with Bobby. While his final ball needs a little work, he showed heaps of potential. Abdul, playing a deeper role, was also tireless in his running and didn't hold back from making some key challenges in defence.

With Tim John missing through injury, Leo marshalled the defence well and also got on to the end of a lobbed pass to score a well taken goal.

A 14-5 victory will have done the SMS team's confidence the word of good, but a selection dilemma awaits ahead of the semi final, as SMS now have a squad of amost 10 players to pick from for the match. It is, of course, a great problem to have, as SMS aim to reach a fourth Grand Final, and attempt to go one step further than their three previous efforts.