Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is confident a good showing against Gold Coast United on Sunday will be the perfect response to the doubters that have attacked his team and the coach in recent weeks.
Despite sitting sixth on the Hyundai A-League table, the Glory have been the focus of much criticism over the last few days following a disappointing performance in North Queensland, where they lost 1-0 to the lowly Fury.
While the result was close, it was the manner in which they played the first half that raised questions, the Perth side overwhelmed as it conceded 15 shots to one against the wind.
The result was still Perth’s first loss in five matches, but it also meant the club has only enjoyed one victory in an eight-round period, seeing them tumble from top-of-the-table contention to just hanging on to a position in the top six.
The murmurings of discontent have seen Mitchell’s position come into question, the coach accused of underperforming with a squad that includes three Qantas Socceroos and a former Premier League defender Andy Todd.
But Mitchell is confident the club’s reached their darkest point of the season and it’s all up-hill from now as the club enjoys five of its last eight matches at home.
“We’ve probably not won a few games we should have, so it’s put us in a situation where we’re hanging into the six,” Mitchell said.
“But a couple of wins as Newcastle have done, can quickly propel you back up the table so from that point of view, we’ve had a chat with the lads and they’re pretty confident we can get some results to stay in our position in the six.”
Mitchell said he did not feel his job was under threat despite having admitted to looking at his options beyond this season.
And the coach refused to say the players had let him down by their performance in Townsville.
“Look they probably let themselves,” Mitchell said.
“(But) it was a one-off game, second half we’ve turned it around, so from that point of view I can look at all the games throughout the year and there’s probably one or two games you’d think we haven’t performed well.”
“But all the rest we have, so from that point of view we’ve done all right.”
Although the club won five of its first 10 matches, Mitchell said ongoing issues with the new players adapting to Perth had caused a few disruptions over the past few months.
“We’ve brought in players and people think we probably should be on top of the league but as we’ve seen the league’s quite an even league.”
“Some of the guys probably haven’t settled in as well as we would have liked, they came sort of late at the start of the season.”
“But you know, when people move interstate it’s a big move but some players have moved from overseas and changed their whole lifestyle and putting kids in school so there’s a lot of things there that take a lot longer than usual.”
“(So) it takes a little bit of time for people to settle in but I don’t feel under pressure. It’s just a situation of disappointment that it’s come to this and the media want to talk about that (my job) rather than the football.”
Mitchell appears likely to drop Wayne Srhoj to the bench for this game after the midfielder’s suffered something of a form slump. The coach was also unsure whether marquee man Mile Sterjovski would play, the former Derby man struggling with a thigh injury after previously suffering an ankle complaint earlier in the season.
Defender Chris Coyne will resume his place in central defence alongside Todd, while Adriano Pellegrino may start alongside Jacob Burns in the centre of the park.
