In-form Gold Coast goalkeeper Jess Vanstrattan believes his side won’t be making any past mistakes when the glamour club takes on Wellington at Skilled Park on Sunday night.
The Phoenix are the only side in the A-league Gold Coast is yet to defeat this season, but Vanstrattan said that United is focused solely on its own game and won’t be worrying too much about Wellington coach Ricki Herbert’s plans.
“In the past I think we have made the mistake sometimes of worrying about other teams,” the shot-stopper said.
“We just have to do what we do best, and if we play week-in week-out to our potential, then we’re dangerous … we’re one of the most dangerous teams in the league.”
“I think they (Wellington) do have some dangerous players (like Eugene Dadi and Paul Ifill), but you just have to approach every game the same, it doesn’t matter who you play against, you’ve just got to do the basic things – close down early and don’t give them too much space.”
“During the course of the season you play some teams that play a bit differently, but I don’t think you should vary your game too much, and worry about the opponents.”
“We’ve got certain players and a certain way we play and that suits our team, and I think we should stick to that.”
Locked in a fierce battle with Melbourne and Sydney for the A-league Premiership, Vanstrattan stressed his team was after more than just payback in this weekend’s match.
Gold Coast was rattled back in Round 12 when Wellington inflicted the club’s worst-ever defeat, demolishing Miron Bleiberg’s men 6-0 at Westpac Stadium.
“It’s a big game for more than one reason, we copped a hiding off them last time so that’s fresh in our memory, we haven’t beaten them yet this year and we need a win to have any shot at winning the minor premiership which is one of our goals.”
“If you look at it, we haven’t achieved anything yet, it will all be for nothing if we don’t win the minor premiership and we don’t go on to win the grand final.”
Coming under fire early in the season for leaking goals, United’s defence has been resurrected of late, taking four clean sheets from seven matches and conceding just three goals.
Vanstrattan has been a major factor in United’s turnaround, and with a consistent run of fitness enabling the custodian to build a strong understanding with centre-backs Kristian Rees and Bas van den Brink, results are now starting to show.
“I’ve said before it’s just a bit of time playing with the other defenders, it’s been an up and down season for me with injuries, but being able to train with the boys on the field makes a big difference.”
“Now that I’ve been able to train regularly and get over injuries and sort of hit some form I wonder where I could have been if I had been injury free.”
“But it’s come at a good time of the season, we’ve never played together and it wasn’t easy with me missing a lot of pre-season, so I just put it down to the fact that we can work together day-in, day-out, and that’s producing results.”
