Brett Emerton has been around professional football long enough to know if you sit around feeling happy with yourself for any time at all, it’s likely to come back and hit you square in the face.
Brett Emerton has been around professional football long enough to know if you sit around feeling happy with yourself for any time at all, it’s likely to come back and hit you square in the face.
It’s a problem Sydney FC have had trouble shaking over the last year, with a brilliant performance and win often followed up with a shocker.
It’s why Emerton has had his Sky Blues teammates on high alert ahead of the club’s crucial Hyundai A-League clash against Perth Glory at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Wednesday night.
Sydney are currently on a big high after producing one of their best displays in a long time in ending Brisbane’s 36-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 win on Sunday.
Asked how hard it would be to back up from the emotional win over the Roar with a game against the Glory three days later, Emerton said: “It’s difficult and it’s something we need to be wary of.”
“Because if we don’t back it up with a good performance (on Wednesday) night, it’s all for nothing really.”
“We have to find that consistency and play at that level week in, week out.”
“We’ve got the ability in this team to beat every team in the league and we’ve proven that, especially on Sunday.”
“It’s just about being consistent. That’s where we need to be. So far this year we’ve been a bit up and down but we need to play at (Sunday’s) level near to that every week.”
Sunday’s game was the first in a tricky stretch for the Sky Blues, which includes five games in just 18 days.
Following the Glory encounter, Sydney travel to the Gold Coast on Sunday before games against Newcastle and Adelaide before Christmas.
Emerton only ran lightly at Tuesday’s training session as the club’s coaching staff look to manage the Socceroos midfielder’s workload during the heavy schedule.
“Mentally it’s tough but I know from my time playing in England, sometimes when have games in quick succession you tend to do quite well,” the 32-year-old said.
“Hopefully that’s the case here and we can pick up a lot of points this week.”
“In this league if you can string two or three wins together then you find yourselves jumping many places.”
“If do that find ourselves right at the top of table and challenging for top two spot for the rest of the year.”
The Sky Blues have defender Scott Jamieson available again after he missed the win over Brisbane through suspension but coach Vitezslav Lavicka is likely to stick with the same squad that performed so well against the Roar.
Sydney and Perth have already met once this season with the Sky Blues coming away with a 1-0 win over in the west last month.
