Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has hailed a ‘blinder’ of a game by Tando Velaphi against Adelaide United as probably the young goalkeeper’s best-ever performance.
Heading into what ended up being a 1-0 win over an unlucky Adelaide, Mitchell admitted the pressure had been building to drop Velaphi after the 22-year-old suffered a horror stretch, his mistakes conceding late goals to Central Coast in Round 5 and North Queensland last weekend.
But Mitchell hailed Velaphi’s strength of character to put all that behind him and make a string of remarkable saves during Friday night’s game that eventually allowed Perth to snatch the points through Victor Sikora’s 79th-minute goal.
Velaphi may have had little to do in the first 40 minutes but was then forced to parry a long-range Kristian Sarkies free kick around the post, before palming away a goalbound Mark Rudan header just minutes later.
A minute after the break, Velaphi showed his true class as a rehearsed Adelaide set piece almost delivered a long-awaited goal for striker Lloyd Owusu. An unmarked Adam Hughes had sent a clever header across goal to Owusu two metres out, but the striker could only look on in disbelief as Velaphi smothered his downward header around the post from point-blank range.
“Tando was outstanding with some of the saves tonight, it really justified keeping him in the side,” Mitchell said.
“He’s a focussed kid, very bright, and I’m so happy for him.”
“It’s easy for me to sit back and go, ‘right he’s made a couple of mistakes, let’s make a change’.”
“But I know the character of the kid and it’s class. He’s come back and made some world class saves tonight.”
For Mitchell, the entire performance was about character as his players responded to a disappointing 1-1 draw with the Fury last week by withstanding Adelaide’s second-half attacks before replying in kind through Sikora’s late goal.
The result sees the Glory, so often the A-League whipping boys, climb into outright second on the table, two points behind Sydney FC, the club having tasted five wins from its past eight matches.
But Mitchell said it wouldn’t have come about without some brave performances, the coach singling out stand-in skipper Chris Coyne for his efforts after the defender was forced to have a painkilling injection at half-time for an abdominal muscle injury he suffered during the warm-up.
“The players felt they let themselves down and let the crowd down (last week),” said Mitchell after the Glory couldn’t defeat a Fury side that played the entire second half with 10-men.
“They wanted to rectify it, but Adelaide have been hitting a bit of form and they’re a good side, battle hardened and you can see they caused a lot of problems.”
“(But) I think there was a lot of character tonight that got us through.”
“A lot of people are talking about us not playing well but the character is (there) … we haven’t lost any in five games or something, so it’s credit to the boys,” he said.
