Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has signalled he will be taking a cautious approach into Friday night’s clash with the Central Coast Mariners.
On the back of the club’s first win of the season, over Wellington last Sunday, Mitchell said it was vital the Glory built on that result and earned points over the next fortnight as they face difficult road trips to Gosford and Melbourne.
But, with Perth only having kept one clean sheet in the last 19 matches, Mitchell said his side needed to adopt a more defensive approach in the early stages of this weekend’s match, ensuring it didn’t concede early goals and lose the confidence developed through the hard-fought win over the Phoenix.
“It’ll be a very tough game for us, obviously,” said Mitchell following training on Wednesday.
“It happened to them last week, they conceded a goal right at the death,” he said, referring to a last-gasp score by Melbourne’s Archie Thompson, which saw the Mariners draw 2-2 with the Victory.
“They’ll be pretty downbeat from that and will want to rectify things this week … [and] I think they’ll be coming at us from game on.”
“So we have to set a stall up and make sure that we play accordingly and we’re a bit cautious to start with and build the confidence in the game. If we’re in the game further on, we’ve always got a chance to win it,” Mitchell said.
The Glory coach added last weekend’s win may have helped restore the team’s belief after a dismal performance against Queensland but said the club still wasn’t where he envisioned it being at this stage of the season, as it sits seventh on the Hyundai A-League table, albeit just two points outside the top four.
“I wouldn’t say we’re back on track or where we want to be,” Mitchell said. “But it’s an important game [this weekend] and if we can get something out of the game, then I’d say we are back on track.”
“We’ve got two difficult games on the road now but I don’t think there’s that much between the teams in the league.”
“The Mariners are very strong at home, but if we can get a point or sneak a win it’d be fantastic for the club, and give us a real boost, a real shot in the arm.”
Mitchell, however, was his usual coy self when it came to discussing any line-up changes for this match, although he conceded there would be ‘one or two’ alterations to the side.
He added that James Robinson, Jamie Harnwell and Wayne Srhoj, who all made their first starts of the season against Wellington last weekend, had all pulled up well but said impressive substitute Naum Sekulovski was unlikely to start against the Mariners as he had been ill over the last few days.
