Charlestown and Adamstown will both be out to prove lopsided scorelines in round six were a one-off when they take on Newcastle Olympic and Warners Bay respectively in Newcastle Herald Women's Premier League on Saturday.
Azzurri host the competition leaders at Lisle Carr Oval Saturday afternoon before Rosebud and the Panthers do battle on the turf field at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility Saturday night.
Charlestown and Adamstown are coming off some confidence-boosting performances and will be desperate for victory to stay in touch with the top four.
While Olympic (33 points) and Broadmeadow (31) are well clear at the top of the table, a four-way battle is ensuing for the remaining two spots.
Warners Bay (19) have missed the opportunity to kick clear of the chasing pack with back-to-back two-goal losses to Maitland (18) and Azzurri (15). Adamstown (16) conceded a last-minute goal in a 2-1 loss to Magic last round.
Charlestown coach Niko Papaspiropoulos is no closer to having a selection headache with leading striker Lori Depczynski (ankle) and centre-back Carolina Cacic (leg) still sidelined through injury.
Midfielder Imogen Tusek is in doubt through work and Isabella Ramzan-Levy, who scored in Azzurri's much-needed 4-2 win over the Panthers on Sunday, misses the match due to concussion symptoms. Midfielder Tamara Nash returns after being unavailable last round.
Azzurri led twice before being locked 2-2 with Olympic at half-time when they last met. The defending champions sealed a 7-2 win with five second-half goals.
"We've managed to match it for half a game last time," Papaspiropoulis said.
"Now, can we go that little bit further and make it a tight contest the whole way through and see what we can get out of it.
"The mentality is to always go and win the game, regardless of who we are playing. We need to be tighter and more disciplined in the middle of the field and have to make sure we start sharp and focused to not give a good team any more footing or to not put any more pressure on ourselves."
Centre-back Jorjia Hogg is nursing an Achilles complaint to be the only Olympic player in doubt.
Similarly, Adamstown and Warners Bay were locked 1-1 at half-time in their round-six encounter before the Panthers went on a goalscoring rampage in the second half to win 7-1.
Rosebud goalkeeper Olivia Sneddon was out suspended that match. Coach Ryan Campbell also felt inconsistency was a factor.
"The players are confident but I think also a little bit nervous because it's obviously such an important game," Campbell said.
"We have to win. Without Liv last time obviously made a big difference. They played well enough in the first half but it's just about being consistent.
"This will be a good test to see have we improved in some of the things that we weren't doing very well in the first round."
Warners Bay have a game in hand against Mid Coast (4) but coach Craig Atkins said they needed to quickly turn around their "form slump".
"Having that game in hand is good but, if you're not winning games in the meantime, it's not going to mean anything in the end, so it needs to start this weekend," Atkins said.
Broadmeadow coach Jake Curley was looking forward to having his full squad available for the first time this season with wide player Erin Wilson coming back into calculations after missing the first half of the season due to a stress fracture.
Magic are at home to Mid Coast on Saturday and Maitland take on New Lambton (0) at Cooks Square Park. The Adamstown-Warners Bay match kicks off at 7pm. The other games are at 3.40pm.
In round six, Maitland beat the Eagles 6-0 and Magic were 3-0 winners over Mid Coast.
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