Perth Glory will be missing two of their stars when they attempt to bounce back to winning ways against third placed Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Glory heads into the match on the back of their third defeat of the season, a 2-0 loss against the Mariners last week in Gosford.
Defender Shane Lowry, who made a return to the starting line-up, admits there’s plenty of room for improvement as they prepare to meet a Victory side that have notched back-to-back wins.
“We’ve been very inconsistent. One week wining, one week losing or drawing,” Lowry told www.perthglory.com.au
“We know that’s not good enough, we know we need to work on it and obviously keen on keeping clean sheets and getting back to scoring loads of goals.”
Lowry underwent hip injury in the off-season, which forced him off the park for three months but was delighted to have played his first 90 minutes.
“I feel good. It’s been a long time for me a frustrating injury to be honest but I badly need that 90 minutes and it was an unexpected start for me,” said Lowry.
Lowry was called into action just before kick-off after right-back Josh Risdon suffered a quad injury in the warm-up.
The Bunbury born Socceroo is now expected to miss up to four weeks to recover.
Marquee man Diego Castro was also dealt a blow, tearing his hamstring and is now likely to miss up to six weeks.
“You always want to have your better players in the team but you know we’ve got a good squad, we’ve got a lot of players who want to play games,” said Lowry.
“It’s part and parcel of football. I’m sure every other team is going to have to do deal with injuries throughout the season as well. We’re no different.
“We’re disappointed to lose Rizzo as well because he’s a Socceroo as well.”
But Lowry’s message to his teammates was clear and simple.
“It’s someone else’s opportunity now to step in.
“We got a big away game this weekend, we’ll come up with some sort of plan. As a unit we need to be better.”
