Perth Glory were dethroned from the top of the A-League ladder some weeks ago by Wellington Phoenix during a nine game winless streak, the fall from royalty landed Kenny Lowe’s side in fourth place behind the other title contenders – Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC.
It looked as though it would continue over the weekend as the Western Sydney Wanderers were on course to take a further three points from their grasp, however Joshua Risdon scored a screamer in the dying stages to not only rescue a victory but set the Glory up for a charge into the finals.
That needs to start on Easter Monday against the Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium and there is no better fixture for the Westerners to gain a valuable three points. Firstly, because the Jets are at the foot of the league ladder and have not looked threatening for the most part of the year, making them perfect side to trigger a resurgence. Secondly and more importantly, the four teams inside a point of the Glory are facing each other – Sydney host the Reds and Melbourne Victory travel across the ditch to take on Wellington.
Obviously, results would need to go in favour of Perth for them to climb to the helm but a win nonetheless will move them a couple rungs higher up the ladder. That scenario is heightened due to the amount of players that will be returning from international duty with the Socceroos in Europe and abroad.
The Phoenix will see their creative maestro Michael McGlinchey re-enter from the All Whites squad, whereas the most notable return is Nathan Burns who currently sits on 13 goals in the A-League and second in the race for the golden boot.
Kevin Muscat’s Victory were without Mark Milligan, Kosta Barbarouses and Daniel Georgievski against Central Coast, while Scott Galloway, Jason Geria and Connor Pain are touring with the Olyroos. Although Melbourne’s injury list has been discarded the several players to come back into A-League action will be fatigued after a heavy international schedule.
The Sky Blues missed Marc Janko despite netting three times against the league leaders, their goals were very fortunate and resulted from either set pieces or a mistake or two. The Austrian striker has scored 16 goals this season and found the scoresheet for his country in matches Liechtenstein and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Finally, Adelaide only had Tarek Elrich absent with the Socceroos. Although he is a defender and can be replaced his form has been impeccable this season and he has set the bar amongst his fellow A-League fullbacks with numerous last ditch tackles combined with an abundance of assists which sees him inside the top ten list for the competition with six.
For Perth there were no regular first team casualties to the international toll, as only super subs Jamie Maclaren and Daniel De Silva were away. Putting the Glory in a prime position to dispatch Newcastle who will welcome back their talisman Andrew Hoole.
Lowe admitted in a the post-match press conference following the Wanderers fixture that he had fears his side were going to slump to a tenth winless game after Western Sydney’s striker Kerem Bulut made it 2-2.
“It would have been so easy to roll over after drawing as many games as we have and not having as many wins as we wanted in the last 10” said Lowe.
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But the Englishmen praised his sides fight and said momentum is key for the Glory to kick on into the A-League’s finals series.
“I’ve said it all along we’ve had a great year, but what we didn’t want to do was for it to peter-out and maybe after a result like tonight, hopefully it won’t peter-out. We’re in the mix.
“We’ve had a fantastic year from where we were last year – an unbelievable year – and it’s a credit to those people in the changing room. Now we’ve got an opportunity to really kick on and get some momentum” concluded Lowe.
It begins this weekend on the New South Wales north coast with a much needed three points, the run into the semis from there then moves to blockbuster clash with Sydney FC at nib Stadium followed by another home game against Melbourne City, and they will finish their campaign with a date in Western Sydney
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