Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has laid down the challenge to his troops to lift their concentration in a bid to crack a three-game losing streak.
The Glory make one of the longest trips in world football when they head to Wellington to take on an in-form Phoenix that’s scored nine goals in their last two matches at Westpac Stadium without conceding any.
On the other hand, Perth has been on the wrong end of three consecutive 2-1 losses to Gold Coast, North Queensland and Melbourne that could all have been different results but for the side switching off at pivotal moments and letting the opposition score.
Although that assessment may be selling short the skills of Jason Culina, Robbie Fowler and Carlos Hernandez, who all had a big hand in the goals conceded, Mitchell is also aware they took advantage of a dip in concentration from the Glory.
And the coach is well aware his players can’t afford to do that against a Wellington outfit bristling with attacking talent like Paul Ifill, Chris Greenacre, Leo Bertos and young gun Costa Barbarouses, who set up two goals in the most recent 3-0 win over Newcastle.
“It’s going to be a tough task for us,” Mitchell conceded when asked how the Glory would contain all those players on Sunday afternoon.
“But that’s the mental attitude that I’m asking the boys to step up to.”
“It’s a team game and we’ve all got to take up responsibilities for defending.”
“I think collectively we haven’t been good and that’s a worry because we’ve got a lot of experience there.”
“(So the concentration) that’s what we’ve been working on throughout the week (and) we think we’re capable with any game we go into, of winning.”
The Glory hope to benefit from Wellington being tired after playing a midweek clash against Newcastle while Mitchell’s team has also been boosted by the return of striker Branko Jelic, who missed last week’s Melbourne loss after coming down with a stomach bug.
Having been denied a goal against Gold Coast United by an offside flag, Jelic is confident he’ll soon return to the scoring list, with Wellington in his sights.
The quietly-spoken Serbian was also more than confident the side could rebound from the three straight losses, saying the poor run could be attributed to the club’s new players still finding time to gel and get their communication right.
But when they did, he felt the Glory would give league front-runners Melbourne and Sydney a run for their money.
“I’m new here, but Melbourne and Sydney, I think they’ve had more time together,” Jelic said.
“We need a little bit more time to make good relationships between us on the field because the atmosphere is very good between players.”
“I think we play well and generally I believe that we have quality and I know that we have the quality to catch them before the season finishes.”
“We have a lot of experienced players and I think we don’t need too much time but maybe a little bit more.”
