Kenny Lowe has hailed Diego Castro the “best player in the A-League” after the Spaniard inspired Perth to a rout of a hapless Newcastle Jets on Sunday.
Castro scored twice and put in another sublime all-round performance as Glory kept their finals hopes alive with a 6-1 drubbing of a 10-man Jets at Hunter Stadium.
And never one to mince his words, Lowe showered praise on his marquee signing.
Rampant Glory crush 10-man Jets at Hunter Stadium
“I think Castro is the best player in the A-League, the best player by a country mile,” the Glory boss told ABC Radio.
“He’s very intelligent, knows the game inside out, just a super player.”
There’s no way you would have predicted the Glory onslaught early on as the Jets dominated the first 15 minutes and went in front via Milos Trifunovic’s goal.
But that’s when Castro, Chris Harold and co. took over.
Goals to Harold and Castro – and a red card to Jets skipper Nigel Boogaard – before the break had the visitors in control and they put the foot on the throat in the second half.
“I thought the players deserved what they got today,” Lowe said.
“The first 10 minutes we were perhaps slow out of the blocks, maybe we set up a little bit wrong, but the players provided a solution themselves on the park, which was good.
“It’s nice to get a win. We’ve deserved a few wins as we’ve moved forward so I guess we got what we deserved today when maybe we haven’t in other games.”
The win means Perth has jumped up into seventh spot on the A-League ladder but still seven points behind Adelaide United in the last of the top six places.
With 11 games left, Glory can still mount a charge for the finals, although Lowe was keeping a lid on expectations.
“It’s about performance. If you put a performance in you win games,” he said.
“That’s what we did today, that’s what we’ve done previously and we haven’t got what we deserved so we just need to keep putting performances in and it goes where it goes.”
