Holiday Inn Match Preview: Royals look to get back to winning ways under Saturday night lights against the Suns

Essendon Royals’ senior men will look to end this poor run of form in all competitions when they welcome Goulburn Valley Suns to Cross Keys Reserve on Saturday night.

Our weekly previews are brought to you by the Geelong Holiday Inn, as we look ahead to the upcoming rounds of action.

Royals’ winless run continued on Friday night, when they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of FC Melbourne Srbija. Marko Basic scored a brace as the newly promoted side continued their fine start to life in VPL2 and heaped further pressure on Essendon’s promotion push.

Catch up with the highlights from our 2-0 loss to FC Melbourne Serbija below.

Michael Ferrante’s side now sit in sixth, eight points behind the likes of Serbija, North Sunshine Eagles and Brunswick Juventus – and ten points behind league leaders Altona City – who are all in the running for promotion this year.

Their next clash comes this weekend against a Suns outfit, buoyed by a 4-4 draw against North Sunshine last week.

Goulburn Valley are desperate for points as we tick over the halfway point of the season, as they sit in third last on eight points, two points clear of Doveton and four points ahead of bottom placed Beaumaris in the race to stave off relegation.

Justin Riescher leads all scorers for the Suns with four goals this season, while Brandon Giaccherini has three to his name.

The two sides played out a 1-1 draw back in Round 1 in Shepparton, with Jordan Adeyemi scoring and being sent off on debut for the club.

Kick-off on Saturday is at 7 PM, with the Under 23s taking the field at 4:45 PM.

The Under 23s went down 2-1 against Srbija last Friday, and sit in eighth spot on the ladder, coming into this weekend’s match against Goulburn Valley, who are in second after a resounding 5-0 win over North Sunshine.