The hottest team in the A-League travel to a happy hunting ground this week as the Perth Glory face the Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium.
Kenny Lowe’s side has turned a massive corner since the beginning of the year, winning eight of its past nine matches to overtake Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC into fifth position. A win against the Jets could potentially see the Glory into fourth place at the end of the week.
While the home team has not seen as much success as its opponents, they looked to have re-entered the finals race, winning three out of four matches, but have only picked up one point since, slowing their progress significantly.
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Key Battle – Steven Ugarkovic vs Diego Castro
Steven Ugarkovic has clearly strengthened the Newcastle midfield since joining in the summer, adding stability and consistency to the side, but he will have his hands full when he faces arguably the in-form player of the competition, Diego Castro.
CrownBet match odds at time of publishing
The Spaniard has scored 12 goals this season as well as three assists. He has created 46 chances and will be Perth’s greatest asset going forward. If Ugarkovic can contain then he can potentially eliminate, or at least weaken, a Perth attack which has found the back of the net 27 times in its past nine matches.
Team News
Daniel Mullen is Newcastle’s only casualty from last week’s clash against Melbourne Victory. The former Adelaide defender was sent from the field in the first half after receiving two yellow cards. Youngsters Andy Brennan, Mitch Cooper, and Radovan Pavicevic have all been promoted in an extended squad.
Availability has been Perth Glory’s greatest strength this season. Captain Josh Risdon is the only short-term absentee for the Western Australians and that is only due to international duty. Lover of set pieces Nebojsa Marinkovic returns from injury and Aryn Williams has been brought in for Risdon.
Head-to-Head
Perth’s record against Newcastle in the A-League is immaculate and unprecedented. Perth have tasted glory 20 times out of the 32 meetings and have recorded winning margins of 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1 and most recently 6-1 at Hunter Stadium over the past decade.
Previous Meeting
A goal in both halves by Andy Keogh and Gygory Sandor gave Perth a 2-0 victory over Newcastle when these sides last met at the beginning of the March. The result ended the Jets’ hopes of making the finals while Perth have gone on to smash the Mariners 4-0 before defeating the Phoenix 2-1 in Wellington last week.
Prediction
Perth are running high on momentum at the moment and Newcastle are running low on confidence after once again falling short on their finals hopes. The dangerous trio of Castro, Chris Harold and Andy Keogh should be too much for the Jets to handle.
Newcastle Jets 1 Perth Glory 3
*CrownBet match odds at time of publishing are subject to change
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