Harnwell returned for his first game of the campaign following a pre-season hamstring tear in the 2-2 draw with Gold Coast United, and is now confident that the Glory’s poor away record can change over the next two weeks.
That quest starts this Sunday against the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium and moves to Newcastle for a match against the Jets on the following Friday.
“It’s not the best being away from the family and home for eight or nine days, but it gives us the best preparation for the two games away and hopefully will see us get rid of this awful away record that we’ve got,” Harnwell said.
“It’s definitely the way to do it, especially when there’s such a short turnaround between games like we’ve got this time. Last year we did the same with Wellington and Sydney, and we played our best game of the season home or away by beating Sydney 4-1, so there’s definitely something to it.”
“The club has tried a couple of times to put away games close together to give us the chance of staying over and not being away as long as we could be. It obviously means a bit less recovery time, but that’s better than flying home and back over again.”
The Glory has never won an Hyundai A-League game at Suncorp Stadium, but Harnwell is hoping that hoodoo is broken on Sunday, with the form continuing on the following week against the Jets.
“It’s probably the 30 degrees and 100 percent humidity that does it. It’s just one of those places that for some reason we have struggled to get victories at. Last season we played well, but went down 3-1 and it doesn’t matter how we play, we just need to get these wins on the board,” he said.
“We want to get two wins and if we do it sets us up fantastically for the rest of the season. It’s important to get this bogey or monkey off our back on the road, and if we can deal with that on Sunday against Brisbane it’ll do nicely.”
“If you are playing good football the results will come, but it’s not something that happens automatically. We have to go out and assert ourselves, make sure we come away deserving points and not just trying to scrape them. The performances are good, so that’s encouraging but even if we play awfully on Sunday and win we’ll take that and move on. “
Harnwell found himself in unfamiliar territory in the goals for the last few minutes of last Sunday’s game against Gold Coast United after Tando Velaphi went off with concussion. The Glory custodian hasn’t recovered in time to play Brisbane with Aleks Vrteski set to take his place.
“Aleks will be fine. He worked really hard while away in Macedonia and when he came back he surprised everyone with how fit he was looking and how sharp. He’s a big, imposing figure and hopefully he’ll do well for us,” Harnwell said.
“It would just be nice to get on the park if I can start, and do it in a more familiar position than last week. I didn’t get to touch the ball, though, so I wouldn’t mind getting to make a save at some stage.”
