Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip is confident his side will be able to match last week’s stunning win over champions Brisbane Roar with an equally strong showing against Perth Glory on Saturday.
Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip is confident his side will be able to match last week’s stunning win over champions Brisbane Roar with an equally strong showing against Perth Glory on Saturday.
The Heart produced the best performance in their short history last week with a 2-1 victory over the all-conquering Roar at Suncorp Stadium – the first time any team had won there since January 2010.
The win showed that Heart can compete with the best and while van ‘t Schip said it provided his side with a big confidence boost, he wants those types of performances to become the norm and not just a one off.
“It did (confidence boost), but you often see and I have experiences myself (where) the week after they got smashed because they were still celebrating and not used to see it as something that is part of your job and that’s what I explained to the boys this week,” he said after training on Thursday.
“If you really want to make steps then we should continue with at least fighting and going for the points.”
“You can’t say we’re going to win, but the mentality has to be the same we had in the games against Brisbane, Victory and Central Coast. If we start thinking that we can do it with less commitment then we have a problem.”
The last time these two sides met in Round 2, a Shane Smeltz double powered the Glory to a 2-1 victory at AAMI park.
In fact the Heart have never had a success against Perth with last year’s three matches all ending in draws.
Van ‘t Schip knows Perth’s bigger bodies and style of play causes his side problems but he is confident they can buck the trend and come home with the three points.
“It’s an opponent that we don’t play easy games against,” he said of Perth.
“They cause us some problems that’s for sure and going up there, a long trip is also difficult with the change in hours so there are a few things that are different again.”
“The home game we played was our worst game of the year, that was a game that we didn’t play with confidence, the players were playing with fear.”
“After that with the game against the Victory we showed we can play very well and we should do the same up in Perth again. We believe in the things we’re doing and ourselves and knowing of course the strengths of Perth.”
“Looking at them of course is good, but we have to look mostly to ourselves and what we can do and then we can surely hurt them as well.”
In team news, defender Jonaton Germano will miss through injury with former Perth man Wayne Srhoj almost certain to come in.
Matt Thompson remains in doubt with a neck injury, but van ‘t Schip insisted he is still a strong chance to take his place in the team.
