Tough assignment for Bendigo City on the rebound

City's playing coach will be looking for a strong response after his side let a valuable three-points slip in last Saturday night's 2-2 draw against Ballarat.

The Bendigo youngsters led 2-nil after 62 minutes, but allowed two goals in quick succession and ended up sharing the points with a plucky Ballarat.

City (three wins, no losses two draws) slipped to third on the ladder on 11 points after five rounds, one point below Melton Phoenix (4-1) and four below this weekend's opponent Barwon, which confidently moved to 5-0 following a 3-1 victory over fellow title contender Balmoral.

Playing at home for the second straight week at Epsom Huntly Recreation Reserve, Thomas said his side was keen to put last week's disappointment behind them.

"This is a great opportunity for the boys to bounce back - playing the top team they won't need too much motivation to get up for this one," he said.

"It's a huge game for us. The boys are certainly up and about and looking forward to it.

"It's a good way to get us back on track, not that we have really fallen off the track. We did finish with a draw last week, not a loss.

"But hopefully we can quickly put that performance behind us and move on."

City will need to come up with a plan to contain Barwon's scoring power.

The visitors have scored the second-highest number of goals in the competition with 14, led by Mylton Bailey with six and Patrick Skuza and Christian Mahon with two apiece.

City will be minus striker Luke Burns (unavailable) and have seen the last of defensive midfielder Will Keating for the season following his decision to take a gap year with the Australian Defence Force.

READ MORE: Will Keating bids emotional farewell to Bendigo City

The absence of Burns, who has five goals in four games this season, robs Bendigo of its leading goal scorer this season.

Sean Boxshall will come into the line-up to give the side a bigger body up front and to inject plenty of experience.

Thomas said faster ball movement had been a theme for Bendigo City all week at training following an at-times tentative display against Ballarat.

"We really need to move the ball a bit quicker from back to front and we don't want to give the ball away, we want to play a possession game," he said.

"And just defensively - the whole group - we need to be a bit tougher and stronger.

"We just need guys to stand up and be a bit more commanding. We've spoken about it this week and I am confident we can do that.

"It will be a very young side again for us, but by all reports, Barwon is a young side too, so it will be a great match-up."

Saturday's senior clash is at 5pm, with Bendigo City's reserves looking to preserve its unbeaten record (5-0) at 3pm.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: