Perth Glory skipper Jamie Coyne believes his team has the mental toughness to be a top four contender, although he concedes it may need to be a little smarter at the end of close games.
The Glory looked on track for their fourth win of the season against Central Coast on Saturday night, leading the Mariners 2-1 in injury time, having out played Lawrie McKinna’s side for long stretches of the second half.
But a lack of concentration allowed the Mariners to punt the ball forward for one last roll of the dice, with Sasho Petrovski slamming in a late equaliser to break the Glory’s hearts.
It’s the second time this season that a team has levelled the scores with Perth during injury time, after the 3-3 draw with Newcastle in Round 2. The Glory also conceded a late penalty in its 2-1 loss to Adelaide in Round 9.
Coyne said it was especially frustrating knowing the five points lost could have taken the Glory to just one point outside the four, but he insists his side still has the right mentality to win matches over the last eight rounds as it pushes for a finals’ berth.
“I’m sure we don’t lack anything in mental toughness, I don’t believe that,” Coyne said referring to reports coach Dave Mitchell may bring in a sports psychologist to address the side.
“It’s hard to say (why it’s happened repeatedly) because I think if it was easy to pinpoint you’d fix it.”
“Maybe it’s just a bit of naivete with closing out the game the right way, maybe we need to waste a bit more time a bit better.”
“(But) we all feel it pretty deeply at the moment, it’s a game that we should have won,” he said.
Coyne said that as long as there was a mathematical chance of making the top four, the Glory would be playing for a finals position but he felt this week’s clash with Melbourne at Members Equity Stadium could be vital to their chances.
He also felt, despite it being a clash between first and last on the Hyundai A-League table, the Victory were disappointing in their 2-1 loss to Wellington last Friday and may be travel weary after two long road trips to New Zealand and Perth within eight days.
The Glory may also be looking at a new signing for next season as well as former Wellington forward LeiLei Gao who trained with the club on Monday.
LeiLei left the Phoenix after demonstrating a poor attitude at training, but he’s currently ineligible to be added to the Glory’s squad for this campaign as he is Chinese and all the club’s international positions have been filled.
