Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is looking to finish off the last two matches on a winning note, despite taking an undermanned side into this weekend’s clash at Newcastle.
The Glory have been shorn of top strikers Eugene Dadi (10 goals) and Nikita Rukavytsya (nine) for the last two matches as Dadi is on loan to Liechtenstein-based FC Vaduz and Rukavytsya is currently trialing at Dutch Eredivise club FC Twente.
But despite losing some significant firepower and being out of finals contention for this season, Mitchell is confident his makeshift side can produced the goods on Sunday, with former Ajax player Victor Sikora and club veteran Jamie Harnwell expected to line up together in attack.
“There’s a few changes, so it will be interesting to see how we line up but we’re going into the game in a positive frame of mind,” Mitchell said following training on a scorching 42-degree day in Perth.
“Sikora could be up front, that’s one I’ve thought about but I haven’t made my mind up.”
“We’re bringing one or two young players in and they have a bit of form and you saw last week, Scotty (Neville) did ever so well in defence and he’ll be in the side again his week and there’s a couple of other boys, like Andrija Jukic, we want to bring in too.”
As Harnwell is expected to move forward, former most Glorious player David Tarka is expected to return at centre back for his first appearance in the starting line-up since the club’s Round 6 loss to Central Coast.
Tarka has endured a frustrating season, cut down with a debilitating nerve-related quadriceps injury during the early stages and prevented from coming back sooner by a red card in a recent National Youth League fixture that saw him suspended for two matches.
But the defender has been given another opportunity to impress Mitchell before the end of the season and will start at centre back alongside Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
“David Tarka’s coming in and he’s going to play and I don’t think he’s probably got 90 minutes in him, but he’ll play as long as he can,” Mitchell said.
The coach indicated that if Tarka was forced to come off 19-year-old Neville, who excelled in the Glory’s 3-2 win over the Victory last weekend, could be thrown in at the deep end at centre back, with youngster Hayden Doyle replacing Neville on the right.
But Mitchell said that was just one permutation, the coach likely to consider bringing Harnwell back into defence and using the creative Jukic, the club’s National Youth League skipper, as a striker.
Mitchell added that Argentine midfielder/forward Adrian Trinidad would not line up in the seniors this week for another crack at Gary van Egmond’s Jets after the Newcastle coach and Trinidad were involved in a heated argument the last time the sides met, a 2-2 draw at Members Equity Stadium where Jade North’s injury-time challenge on Trinidad saw the Jets concede a late penalty equaliser.
