Perth Glory defender Chris Coyne has urged his team-mates to build some winning momentum after an up-and-down opening to the new Hyundai A-League season.
Despite it being just the sixth round, the Glory have only won two matches this season, both at home, and a late slip-up in a 2-1 loss to Central Coast last week has seen the competition’s frontrunners start forging ahead of the fifth-placed Western Australians.
Coyne, though, says the Glory has a superb chance to close the gap on table-topping Gold Coast United on Sunday afternoon, when it takes on the new boys at ME Bank Stadium.
But the Qantas Socceroos defender is predicting a hard-fought encounter between the two sides widely predicted to be finals contenders at the end of the year.
“Every three points is crucial, especially with two tough away games coming up,” Coyne said, referring to away trips to Brisbane and Newcastle in the rounds after this week.
“Playing 27 games in a year, it’s like you get to Christmas in the European leagues and there’s that run in, if you slip up too many times, all of a sudden the games get away from you.”
“So I think after the first few games of bedding in, every single game’s a massive game and if you lose two or three and you don’t go into consecutive wins, all of a sudden teams are nine points away.”
“That’s them losing three and you winning three before you even get near them.”
“People have got to realise, it’s already Round 6 coming up (but) it means there’s 21 games left and they can slip away quickly if you don’t get results and do things properly early on.”
While most players generally focus on the 27-round season being a marathon where results eventually come, Coyne is challenging his team-mates to approach every game like a cup final.
The defender’s hopeful such an attitude will see the Glory claim some points when United travels to Perth in billionaire chairman Clive Palmer’s private jet.
The Gold Coast side will be without the damaging Joel Porter, however, after the midfielder injured his calf in last week’s win over Sydney FC, forcing him out for three weeks.
But United will regain skipper Jason Culina from national duty, while Palmer will also pay to have Shane Smeltz flown directly to Perth after the striker plays for New Zealand against Jordan on Thursday.
“It’s alright for some,” joked Coyne. “We went Jetstar (to Canberra) on Friday.”
“(But) we are looked after well, we can have no complaints (although) it’s fortunate for them, they’ve got the private jet sitting on standby at training every week.”
“They are big talkers, but they are also walking the walk, so when you can do that, it does put them in a position where we want to knock them off that perch,” he said.
The Glory should be boosted by Jamie Harnwell’s return for this clash after the veteran utility recovered from a serious hamstring injury, while Jamie Coyne appears to be fit again after a minor knee injury.
But the club has suffered from a bout of flu since travelling back from Canberra, while left midfielder Victor Sikora didn’t train on Monday after being an early substitute in the Mariners’ game last week.
