Perth Glory coach Kenny Lowe has offered some words of encouragement to his opposite Ernie Merrick after a season-opening 2-1 win over the Phoenix in Wellington. Substitute Jamie MacLaren’s 86th minute strike was enough to give Glory all three points at a venue where they’ve traditionally struggled.
“This is one of the best Wellington teams I’ve seen“, said Lowe. “Some of the football they played – if I hadn’t been sat on our bench it would have been really enjoyable. We started off well in the first half but then for a fifteen-minute spell, they were absolutely top-notch. They’ve got some super footballers and they’ll hurt some teams this season. The quality of football they play is also very, very good.”
“If I was (Phoenix) I’d probably feel a bit hard done by. They had their chances, but you have to finish them. Our ‘keeper has made one great save but then again (Glen Moss) has pulled out two worldies from Mitch Nichols. Maybe in the balance you could say we were fortunate, but I’ll take fortunate every single week.”
Lowe has also revealed a dreadful record in Wellington was used as motivation ahead of what was just Glory’s second win in New Zealand’s capital.
“We actually spoke about that before we left the hotel for the game today. We said we’d only won once here in twelve games, so it’s been a big driver leading up to this game to actually get something out of it. The guys are obviously extremely pleased.”
After a winning start to the campaign, Lowe can confidently look forward to the visit of Brisbane Roar in a week’s time.
“Another driver for us has been to win more away games, score more goals, get up the league and be more successful. It’s maths 101 really.”
