Gold Coast United striker Joel Porter believes after three weeks of travelling, his team is ready to bring their stellar away form back home and turn Skilled Park into a fortress – starting with Sydney FC on Friday night.
While United have picked up points away from home almost at will, including last week’s smash-and-grab win over Melbourne Victory, their form on their home paddock has been largely disappointing, including three 0-0 stalemates and their one and only loss so far this season.
Now with the opportunity to extend their undefeated record to 10 games, Porter said Gold Coast were eager to right this wrong and continue their ascent up the Hyundai A-League ladder.
“Our form at home hasn’t been the best so we’re looking to get that back on track,” Porter said on Thursday.
“I guess we can put it down to the fact that a few of our first games were at home and we were slow to start this year.”
“We’re a better team than what we were at the start of the year and we haven’t played at home in a bit, and we have a lot more confidence now. Our home form last year was excellent so I don’t see it being a big problem.”
United welcome back Tahj Minniecon and James Brown from the virus that ruled them both out of last week’s game. Chris Broadfoot is the third addition to the 15-man squad that beat Victory 1-0 last weekend.
Impressive in last week’s game at Etihad Stadium were National Youth League starlets Ben Halloran and Chris Harold, who showed glimpses of their great potential and having signed pre-contracts for next year, will be keen to continue their good start in professional football.
Their pace could come in handy against Sydney FC who are likely to field veterans Stephan Keller and Hayden Foxe in defence.
While Porter is cautious of the Sky Blues recent resurgence, he is adamant the three points are staying in Queensland.
“They’ve come off the back of a couple of good results after a slow start for them so they’ve probably got a bit of confidence, they’ll be pumped and ready to go and I don’t think they’ve beaten us yet,” he said.
“They’ll have that in the back of their minds and they’ll want to come here and get the victory.”
“They’ve got some very good players despite a few injuries and it’s going to be tough for us but as long as we play to our potential we should get the victory.”
Assistant coach Mike Mulvey agrees with Porter-s assessment, comparing Sydney to a ‘wounded soldier’.
“They’ve been much maligned lately but they’ve just crept up the ladder a little bit, so they’re a wounded soldier and we’re wary of them,” Mulvey said.
“But I think we’ve proved in the last few games that we are capable of not only creating chances, but putting them away.”
“With the strength of the bench and the players we have on the field, if we make chances we’ll convert them tomorrow.”
