Frank Farina has labelled every remaining game in the Queensland Roar season a ‘Grand Final’ as the battle for the A-League Premiership intensifies.
Third-placed Roar can still finish on top on Saturday, but they need to beat Perth Glory by at least two goals and hope both Melbourne and Adelaide fail to win their matches.
Farina is confident his team is well prepared for the big games up ahead.
“Without doubt the experience from last season, in particular with the younger lads, is invaluable,” he said.
“You can’t teach that or you can’t give that experience to players, they have to live it and go through it.”
“I think last season was fantastic in terms of the learning curve for them and preparing them for big games.”
“Every game from now until we finish is virtually a Grand Final.”
Although the Roar are dependant on other results to clinch the Premiership, Farina has promised his team will be on the offensive from the outset to give them every chance of a top-two finish.
“Ideally you want to score as many goals as you can,” he said. “We can’t really worry about other results.”
“The important thing above all else is that we win and that’s where the focus will be.”
The Roar squad will be boosted by the return of Tahj Minniecon and Liam Reddy from injury, while Charlie Miller continues to return to full fitness and is likely to get more time off the bench than last week.
Despite Reddy’s recovery, the form of Griffin McMaster will mean the Roar’s senior goalkeeper will be limited to an appearance in the youth league curtain-raiser and a spot on the bench.
Also returning from injury is tenacious veteran Danny Tiatto, who played through the pain of cracked toes in last week’s win over Sydney.
The defensive midfielder said the team was ‘ready to stand up and do the job’.
“Everyone’s feeling confident and we’re playing some really nice football so we’re going to go into this game tomorrow and then into the finals with a lot of confidence which is great,” he said.
“I haven’t got too many years left in me so I want to win something before I hang up the boots so I’m desperate to go out there and do well like the rest of the boys.”
