Perth Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino is confident the club can put aside the pressure of a winless start to the season and find its best form against Newcastle this Sunday.
On Friday afternoon, Jets’ coach Branko Culina fired the first salvo in the psychological war, saying the expensively assembled Glory side would struggle to cope with the pressure of having to win its first home game of the new season.
The Glory narrowly went down to Adelaide in a 1-0 opening-round loss and couldn’t make the most of numerous second-half opportunities in a 2-1 defeat to Wellington last week, leaving the club ninth on the table.
But Pellegrino said the playing group handle the pressure from fans and club owner Tony Sage, who’s invested heavily in the squad, saying they would concentrate solely on their own game and not by distracted by outside influences.
“There is always pressure I guess at the start of the season, expectation and stuff like that,” Pellegrino said.
“But at the end of the day, we’ve just got to concentrate on what Mitch (coach Dave Mitchell) and Kenny (assistant Kenny Lowe) and our coaches say and work from there.”
“Work on our positives from the two games gone and keep building.”
“We’d set our mark to try and get some points away from home to start with and it hasn’t happened.”
“We probably should have taken a few more chances (against Wellington) and they’ve scored a late goal and got the points against us.”
“We’ve come home disappointed but in good spirits (for) we’ve created a lot of opportunities away from home which is a good sign.”
“(So) we’ll put all that behind us and move on and hopefully get a good crowd out and get some points here in front of our home supporters,” he said.
Pellegrino said the Glory would look to continue the fluid attacking moves that almost netted them several goals against the Phoenix last weekend.
But he said a key message from coach Mitchell would be to exert more pressure on the opposition as it came out of defence after a sensational run from Diego led to Wellington’s 85th-minute goal.
It was Pellegrino himself that fouled the playmaker as he stormed forward in the wet conditions. But the Glory man had no idea Phoenix forward Leo Bertos would unleash a 35-metre thunderbolt from the resulting free kick that saw Wellington claim the points.
The free kick is just one of several things going against Perth’s Most Glorious Player from 2008-09 after the 25-year-old suffered a niggly groin injury ahead of the opening round before suffering tonsillitis the following week.
“You’ve just got to put them aside for you never go into a game without a knock or some sort of injury niggle,” Pellegrino said.
“(The tackle), I guess it was just one of those fouls I had to make (for) he was through.”
“It was a great strike from Leo (but) now, at a home ground where we’ve performed well last season, I think we can do a really good job and Jacob Burns can lead the boys out this week and get a result,” he said.
