Melbourne City defender Alex Wilkinson has come back from Socceroos duty and is ready to face Perth Glory at NIB Stadium on Sunday.
Wilkinson did not play in the two Australia games against Tajikistan (7-0) and Jordan (5-1), but said he did extra training to make up for the loss of game time and the centre-back has no concerns about his fitness.
Perth Glory have gone on an unbelievable run after a poor first-half to the season, winning 10 of their last 11 matches. City also still have to play third placed Adelaide United next week, which looks to produce a grandstand finish.
The 31-year-old admits the challenge against the Glory will be tough, but the squad is brimming with confidence sitting first on the table with a healthy goal difference of +22 in their favour.
“We’ve kept winning, it’s all in our hands, two wins and we’ll be top, two very difficult games,” Wilkinson said.
“The way we’ve been playing we’re confident we can go there and get a result and we’ll worry about Adelaide after that.
“The run Perth is on at the moment, confidence is a huge thing, we’ve seen it in our dressing room, with a lot of wins in a row, the confidence grows and the team starts performing.
“It becomes like clockwork, you get into that habit of winning. They’re a strong team, a physical team and are very good on set pieces.
“Not too many players get good records playing at NIB, Glory on their home patch is always a difficult game.”
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For Wilkinson as a defender, the main challenge will be to stop in-form striker Andy Keogh, who has scored nine times since his return.
Despite the cluster of goals scored much of City’s problems was keeping clean sheets earlier in the season, but in recent weeks that has been cleaned up.
John van’t Schip’s options at the back have also been boosted with the return of Connor Chapman, who has recovered from a knee injury he picked up in December and Wilkinson was happy with the way they have strengthened their defence.
“It was good to see him (Chapman) back, he was injured for a while, he’s a very good young player, missed out on the Olyroos campaign because of his injuries,” he said.
“It was a shame for him, great to get him back in, it gives us a few more options, if JVS (John van’t Schip) wants to change some things it gives him the flexibility to do so.
“In the last month we’ve been a lot more solid defensively, not just as a back four, but as a team.
“We needed to sort that out because we were leaking a few too many soft goals, I’ve always said we’re going to score goals going forward with the players we’ve got in attack, so if we can iron out the defensive errors, we’ve got a good chance.”
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