Graystone’s side went down to APIA 1-0, but after APIA’s 4-0 demolition of Sydney United on Friday night, that result isn’t looking so bad.

“In these games, it’s really the small moments that matter,” said Graystone. “We look at the sort of opportunities that we created [and there were] probably not enough of them to be quite honest with you.

“I think with the possession that we had and the control that we had, with moments of the game we could have done a lot better with that possession.

“That’s something that we’ve been working on this week, but [there were] some real positives to take out of it.

“You look at Wests [APIA], they’re one of the favourites for the competition [and] I think we deserved to take something out of the game if I’m honest. We probably deserved a point out of that game.

“We should be going into the next couple of rounds really positive,” he continued, “but the reality is that when we get these good attacking moments, we’ve got to be clinical and we’ve got to deliver”.

MetroStars will be bolstered by the returns of captain and former Adelaide United player Fabian Barbiero, who is set to make a decision on retirement at the end of the Championship season, and defender Christian D’Angelo, who missed last week due to his wedding.

“Fabian’s been struggling with a bit of a groin issue from the start of pre-season this year, but it seems to really be starting to clear up,” Graystone revealed before giving a glimmer of hope to MetroStars fans.

“So, whether that’s a definitive retirement at the end of the Championship, we’ll [have to] see how he reacts during this competition. At the moment it will be retirement at the end of the Championship, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Fabian tried to go again.”

Bayswater City are coming into this match off the back of a 1-1 draw away to Sydney United, so a win for MetroStars could see the NPL South Australia Premiers take second spot.

“We’ve put a refocus on ourselves,” said Graystone when asked about how much time goes into analysing opponents. “There are little tactical tweaks I think we’ve got to make just to get the best out of how we’re going to shape up in an away game.

“[We’re also making] a bit of a change [because of the] way that Bayswater played against Sydney. They get back in numbers very quickly, [they’re a] little bit more physical, a little bit more direct potentially than Wests were.

“We’re going into it with a decent plan, we think, to come away with a decent result.

“It’s still going to be a very tough game for us,” he admitted. “They’re a good side, good physicality, strong throughout and [have] some good players coming off the bench. So it’s going to be a tough, tough day.

“But we think we can come back with the points.”

Graystone described MestroStars’s fixture of three away games in a row as “a bit disappointing” and made the point that it stifles promotion of the Australian Championship in South Australia.

“I think it does offer a sort of advantage to a team to build some consistency, having three consecutive home games,” he said.

“From [the perspective] of building the interest in South Australia around the Championship, we’ve got one game - and then they don’t see us for four weeks.” Despite the challenging fixture, Graystone says his players are prepared.

“Players know what to expect with us in terms of dietary requirements, itinerary, sleeping patterns and stuff like that,” he explained.

“We try and surround them with as much as a professional environment as we can, so it’s nothing new to them.”

The coach also expressed disappointment at the number of spectators who came to see his team in Round 1 and called upon the South Australian football community to “get behind these initiatives” and for the club to be “a little bit more aggressive with our marketing” surrounding kick-off times.

“I think with how heavily we’ve seen [the Australian Championship] supported around the country, we’ve got to be doing our bit in South Australia to make sure that we’re part of that drive of the competition,” he said.

“We’ve got to represent our state as a football code; there’s no reason we shouldn’t be getting 1500-2000 plus football people in this in this state to come and watch a game of football on a national level.

“I’m hoping that we will be doing a lot more to make sure that those numbers in the last couple of games are a lot higher, because, quite frankly, we probably need that support.

“If it goes down to that last two games at home, we probably need a few thousand people there supporting us. It’s really important.”

The coach also suggested that A-League side Adelaide United and Football South Australia could be doing more to promote the competition.

Kick-off is at 4 p.m. ACDT.