Perth striker Shane Smeltz has warned Melbourne Victory that the Glory will be doing everything in their power to arrest a three-game losing streak when the two sides face off at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Perth striker Shane Smeltz has warned Melbourne Victory that the Glory will be doing everything in their power to arrest a three-game losing streak when the two sides face off at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Speaking before training on Friday, Smeltz said Perth would be desperate to turn results back in their favour after their recent run of losses cancelled out a three-game winning streak to start the new campaign.
The Glory were somewhat unfortunate in last week’s 1-0 loss to Sydney FC, dominating the second half as they created a series of shots on target.
But the Western Australians were denied by inaccuracy, the woodwork and an imposing performance by Sky Blues stopper Liam Reddy as Sydney held on.
Having seen Perth produce numerous solid performances without winning last season as the team finished second-last, Glory fans have become understandably nervous after the last three weeks, but Smeltz has no intention of letting the losing run continue.
“I can’t predict anything, but I can certainly say that we’re going to be doing everything we can to put things right as quick as possible,” said Smeltz.
“We had three wins, so a good start and then we’ve had three losses and in those three losses there’s certain things that we could have changed quite easily.”
“Our standards dropped a little bit, we copped some easy goals and that always makes it hard away from home to bounce back and score goals.”
“So if we can stop that, we’ve always got goals in this team.”
The normally prolific Smeltz is suffering – by his standards – a bit of a dry spell, having gone three matches without scoring.
His cause against Sydney wasn’t helped when he suffered a cork after a clash with Reddy, but Smeltz says he’s fit to play this weekend and will be looking to add to the two goals he’s already scored in Melbourne this year, after bagging a double against the Heart at AAMI Park in Week 2.
Smeltz has currently scored 52 goals and is second only to Victory’s Archie Thompson (56) in the all-time list of top Hyundai A-League scorers.
“I just did an interview before and someone said that Archie’s going to be tracking back to tackle me,” joked Smeltz.
“Nah, there’s no battle going on; the three points are more important at this stage.”
Former Qantas Socceroo Mile Sterjovski looks likely to make his first starting appearance this season against the Victory after impressing on the wing last weekend when he came on during the 55th minute in his first minutes for Glory this campaign.
Sterjovski couldn’t work his way into the team over the first few rounds, but looks likely to replace Andrezinho in the starting XI after the Brazilian was somewhat underwhelming last weekend.
And, Perth’s bid for the three points, will be further boosted by Victory marquee man Harry Kewell not playing due to an injury he picked up while on Qantas Socceroos’ duties.
