Coach Ben Schmid (hip flexor), import Vasilis Spilotopoulos (ribs) and goalkeeper Liam Dedini (hand) will all be forced to watch from the sidelines, after Wanderers endured a horror run of injuries during its 4-1 loss to University of NSW last week.

Rob Fry will step into goals, returning from an overseas trip just in time to fill Dedini’s shoes, while experienced midfielder Adrien Jolly will also be unavailable.

But the lack of healthy bodies has done little to curb coach Schmid’s enthusiasm.

“We lost to them last time but we definitely should be more competitive this week,” he said.

“That was one of our poorer performances, but now we’re getting off to stronger starts and playing better patches for longer.”