HARRISBURG, Pa. – After starting off its season-ending nine-game homestand with a disappointing defeat against ATL UTD 2 on Saturday, Penn FC looks to rebound in a crucial midweek clash against Indy Eleven on Wednesday night at FNB Field (6:30 p.m. ET | Match Center | ESPN+).

The home side is still holding onto hope of reaching the 2018 USL Cup Playoffs, but will have to make up a lot of ground over the next month to catch Nashville SC in the Eastern Conference standings. Penn FC currently sits on 32 points, seven behind eighth-placed NSC, but has played at least a game less than nearly every team above it in the East.

In order for Penn to make the most of those extra opportunities, defender Kyle Venter believes the team will have to start strong out of the blocks, something it didn’t do against ATL UTD 2 last weekend when it conceded in the opening three minutes of a 2-1 defeat.

“The last couple of games we’ve had a tendency to start slow, and we’ve gotten punished in those games, so we need to be able to start quick, especially at home, be alert, and be switched on to what they bring into the game, and then be able to maintain that for a full 90 minutes,” Venter said.

Penn FC Head Coach Raoul Voss also wants his team to be more clinical in front of goal against the Eleven, especially given the continued absences of top-scorer Lucky Mkosana – who converted a penalty in June’s 1-1 draw between the two sides – and forwards Aaron Dennis and Jorge Rivera who are away on international duty with Zimbabwe, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico respectively.

“We created a good amount of chances [against Atlanta] and didn’t really take advantage of those -- this is the one thing we have to do better against Indy,” Voss said.

Goals will likely be a necessity to keep up with the visitors, who found the back of the net 13 times in their recent run of seven games over 22 days which concluded last Wednesday with a 3-0 home victory over the New York Red Bulls II.

Indy Head Coach Martin Rennie was impressed with his team’s ability to come through that brutal stretch of the schedule with a 3-0-4 mark, but would like to see his team shore up its defense in the final month of the season as it continues its playoff push.

“We’ve been scoring a lot of goals recently,” Rennie said. “In the last game, we managed to also defend very well and get a clean sheet. But, in the run of seven games we didn’t consistently do that. It’s very important that we consistently get the defending right and continue scoring the goals that we’ve been scoring.”

Indy has conceded ten goals during its current nine-game unbeaten run (4-0-5), which has been enough to help solidify the side’s position in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff places. The Eleven could push even higher up the table on Wednesday as a win would see them overtake the Charleston Battery, who currently sit in third place in the East as Week 27 begins.