Experienced Glory defender Chris Coyne says volunteering to come from the ground after being struck down with a virus was one of the toughest calls in his career.
The Qantas Socceroo battled through 27 minutes against Wellington last weekend at Westpac Stadium after feeling the virus during the warm-up, but eventually asked coach Dave Mitchell to be subbed off as it robbed him of energy.
The virus continued a raw run of luck for the former Colchester United captain since his return to Perth, as Coyne was also responsible for conceding an unfortunate penalty in the Glory’s opening 1-0 loss to Adelaide.
But having watched on as his side fell victim to a late Leo Bertos screamer in its 2-1 loss to the Phoenix, a fit again Coyne is hopeful both his fortune’s and the team’s are due to turn around when they face off against Newcastle at ME Bank Stadium on Sunday.
“It seems it’s going around and I was just unlucky to catch that last Sunday,” Coyne said.
“(But) if selected this week, I’ll be more than ready to go.”
“It was unfortunate and I felt personally that I let people down.”
“But you know it was only a matter of time before I conceded a goal because I just had nothing physically in the tank to give to my team-mates or the coaching staff.”
“Sometimes you’ve got to be honest with yourself and put your hand up, although it’s a long way to go for 24 minutes of football,” he said.
Coyne’s exit was rapidly followed by another forced substitution as goal scorer Victor Sikora came off with a corked quadriceps. But both players appear fit to be selected for Sunday’s first home game of the season against the Jets as the Glory look to finally put some points on the board.
Sikora was in some doubt early in the week, but trained strongly on Friday, while Coyne is fit and raring to go.
But the defender is at least heartened to know he has a capable head to replace him at the centre half, after youngster Scott Neville stepped into the role effectively against the Phoenix.
Neville said he was well prepared to fill Coyne’s role as the 20-year-old played in central defence for the Glory’s National Youth League side last season.
“At first I was a bit nervous because there was a lot of responsibility playing at centre back, but as the game progressed I obviously felt a lot more comfortable and was confident,” he said.
“I kind of just based myself on last season and it was good to learn lessons from (central defence partner) Andy Todd, it was a good experience.”
“In football, 12 months is a long time I guess,” Neville added, saying he would never have dreamed of partnering former Blackburn Rovers skipper Todd this time last year.
“I obviously came through the ranks pretty quickly and just hopefully will stay there for as long as possible,” he said.
Coyne believes Neville, who played a blinder on debut against Melbourne Victory last season, has enormous potential and will benefit from learning from the more experienced defenders.
“There’s a few grey hairs there,” Coyne joked referring to himself and Todd
“But we’ve learnt the game and learnt our trade and we can hopefully pass that on to Nevs, because he’s a smashing bloke and a hell of a player.”
