Perth Glory head coach Bobby Despotovski says Kim Carroll’s late equaliser against Canberra United was just reward for her best-ever Glory form to start the 2019/20 Westfield W-League campaign.
Carroll scored her first goal in Perth Glory colours in the 90th minute of her side’s clash with Canberra at Dorrien Gardens on Friday night.
The central defender’s headed goal earned Glory a 1-1 draw and their first point of the 2019/20 Westfield W-League campaign.
As Despotovski reflected on the result after the game, the Glory boss said he was delighted for Carroll who put the responsibility to score on herself as a leader in the side.
“I couldn’t be happier for her,“ Despotovski said.
“She’s a leader, she has a completely different mentality this year.
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“She leads from the back and she’s more aggressive than I’ve ever seen.
“Kim is in the system now for four years or five years and this year it’s (her) aggressiveness that gets her through the game.
“She’s a phenomenal player and if she continues like she is now she can play for the years to come with no problems whatsoever.”
The result comes as a massive relief for Despotovski who is adamant his side have deserved more out of their first three games of the season, from which the Glory came away without a point to their name.
But with one positive result finally in the books, Despotovski says the performances will only get better from here.
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“It was well deserved,” Despotovski said.
“It was good for the girls to see the result of their hard work, and then playing well together.
At half time I said to the girls ‘you know what, if we continue playing the way we played in the first half, and the way we improved from the first game to the third game and now in the fourth, the results will start coming’.
“Believe in the process and what we’re trying to achieve, and give 150%; that’s all we ask.
“We always build, we always try to improve every game.
“One of my messages is always improve on last week’s performance, and if you go in with that mentality you’re always going to find some bit of energy within you to improve on the last week.”
VOTE: Westfield W-League Coach of the Month – November
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Up next for Perth is a trip to ABD Stadium where they will face the high-flying Melbourne City next Thursday night (7:30pm AEDT).
City are currently on top of the Westfield W-League table after an unbeaten start in their first five games of the season.
Despotovski is not shying away from the size of the challenge, but knows his side can go into the contest full of confidence knowing they’ve got nothing to lose.
“Next week on Thursday we play against the Matildas,” Despotovski joked, as he marvelled at the talent at City’s disposal.
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“We’re going to go there and give it a go; we’ve got nothing to fear.
“It’s a transition year, we’re trying to build on the core values we have to try and establish ourselves.
“We have no pressure whatsoever.
“It was important for the girls to get something out of the (Canberra) game because it was a good performance, but next week is a completely different ball game.
“We’re going to go there and give it a red-hot go.”
Melbourne City host Perth Glory at ABD Stadium next Thursday night (7:30PM AEDT).
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