After watching his side just edge out Gunnedah FC early in the second round, Tamworth FC coach Wayne May predicted the Gunnedah side would be part of the Northern Inland Premier Division finals make-up.
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He has been proven a pretty astute judge.
At Gipps Street 5 on Saturday the two sides will face-off for a spot in next weekend's grand final.
Just a straight knock-out finals series this year, there will be no second chances and no margin for error: "you've got to do it on the day", as May said.
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The first time FC have faced a sudden death semi-finals scenario for a couple of years (the last two they have won the major semi-final and gone straight through to the decider), May said the players are "looking forward to it" and he believes are "right for it".
"We've been playing pretty good football over the last month," he said.
"Ever since the Moore Creek game."
Guilty of probably taking "it a bit easy", May said it was "a bit of a wake-up call", FC scoring in the last couple of minutes to snatch the points.
Since then their "attitude has been better" and they have tightened up the defensive errors that hurt them. In their four games since they have only conceded one goal, that coming last week.
They will welcome back keeper Owen Rogers for the game. May is also hopeful Troy Hearfield will be right to play, but said they will be starting "with the same side" as last week (except for Rogers).
The two time reigning premiers have beaten Gunnedah in both their meetings this season and will go in as favourites, but May stressed it's "not a foregone conclusion".
"It's going to be a tough semi-finals series, it's not just us and OVA on top, and everyone saying that will be the grand final," he said.
He did note that they have been able to minimise Gunnedah's chances pretty well in both games (they have only between the two conceded one goal).
"We've just got to take our chances," he said.
