As the countdown to Friday night’s Round 8 clash with Melbourne City continues, we thought we’d crunch some of the key numbers and then throw in a selection of other random stats, plus some bite-size chunks of trivia.
And if recent history is anything to go by, we won’t be going short of excitement at AAMI Park.
You want goals? We got goals!
The last three meetings between the two sides have yielded no fewer than 17 goals, with Glory bagging ten to City’s seven.
Handy Andy
If that free-scoring trend continues on Friday, you can expect Andy Keogh to be right in the thick of it because in his ten career appearances against the Victorians, the Glory skipper has found the net five times and been on the losing side just once.
From downtown
There’s also a good chance of seeing some spectacular strikes at AAMI Park because Glory and City have each managed ten shots on target from outside the box this season, the joint-highest in the Hyundai A-League.
Stat stars
City’s high-profile Scottish recruit, Ross McCormack has contributed five of those shots himself, a league best, while Glory Brandon Wilson is also a league leader, with his pass accuracy rate of 89% comfortably higher than any other player who has completed more than 20 passes this season.
Heads Up
Glory will fancy their chances of scoring via a header as 50% of the club’s goals this term have come in this way (4). City, in contrast, have not scored a single header yet.
Happy travels
Overall, Glory have enjoyed 11 wins to City’s six in the 24 previous meetings between the two clubs and we’ve particularly enjoyed our recent trips to AAMI Park where we are unbeaten in three. Last season we won 3-2 there in Round 3, courtesy of a Keogh hat-trick and then fought out a 3-3 draw in Round 12 when Diego Castro scored twice and both Dino Djulbic and Fernando Brandan saw red in the last minute.
Dynamic duo
This year, meanwhile, Warren Joyce’s men have recorded two wins, a draw and a defeat from their four home games to date and seven of their season-tally of nine goals have been scored by McCormack and Bruce Kamau.
Counting cards
While City own the third-worst disciplinary record this season having committed 121 fouls and received 16 yellow cards, Glory have the third-best with 88 fouls and 12 yellows. But that rugged approach seems to be working for the men in sky blue and white as they boast the competition’s most miserly defence with only six goals conceded.
On the up
Victory for Glory at AAMI Park would lift them back into the top six, while City could go top, at least temporarily, if they were to claim the three points.
Familiar faces
Former Glory favourite Scott Jamieson is expected to start for the hosts, while the game will mark something of a homecoming for Jeremy Walker who previously spent two seasons with City in their former guise as Melbourne Heart. Other players to have featured for both clubs include Simon Colosimo, Richard Garcia, Tando Velaphi, Jack Clisby and Wayne Srhoj.
Kick-off at AAMI Park is at 4.50pm WST and we’ll be bringing you full coverage, as always, via Twitter.
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