MAKING the Gold Coast Soccer Premier League finals isn’t good enough for the Tweed Valley Kings.

The team begins its finals run today hungry for a grand final appearance and boosted by the return of captain Luke Craig.

The Kings have a tough road trip for the first semi-final, travelling north to take on last week’s beaten foe, Southport.

The two teams stand at one win apiece from their encounters this season and there has been nothing in it on each occasion.

The Kings dug deep last Saturday in a gruelling and muddy affair at Reg Dalton Oval for a 2-1 victory.

“It was a really great effort last week and I couldn’t fault anyone,” coach Craig Madden said. “We really had to play for each other with a man down.

“This is a close-knit team. Everyone gets along really well – they’re happy and enjoying football. Everyone’s working for each other.

“The boys really want to go on with it now.”

The team showed the kind of guts and determination last week that is a necessity for any team with aspirations for finals success, and they will have to draw on the same type of courage and conviction to emerge with a win against Southport.

Craig returns, along with Ben Blair, but the man who scored both Tweed’s goals last week, Luke Morley, is out for both rounds of the semi-finals. Defender Chris Brown will also have to sit out after being handed a red card last week.

While Morley has a talismanic presence for the Kings, they have no shortage of players who are capable of scoring goals in his absence.

Ben Walden, Anthony Blyde, Chris Edwards, Matt Bruggy and Leighton Pauley have all found the back of the net plenty of times this season.

“All these other guys have been scoring goals all year, and they have done it in games without Luke there this year,” Madden said.

The coach said he would like to see Edwards in particular fill the gap left by Morley.

“He is going to have to step up with his mate out. I am looking for him to get involved a lot more and really aim up for us.”

The coach has steeled his troops for what will be a tense affair.

“We played them and beat them last week, and they’ll want to turn things around,” he said.

“This is a big game up there at their home ground. We’ve got to keep the consistency up we have shown in the past few weeks and really dig deep for each other.

“All I am asking for is effort from everyone. If everyone puts in, we will get something out of it.”

In the other Gold Coast Soccer premier league semi-final match-up, minor premier Broadbeach takes on Merrimac.

This week’s match-ups will be repeated next weekend, except the Kings will host Southport at Reg Dalton Oval.