Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will be forced to juggle his line-up ahead of Saturday’s match with Central Coast after hard working utility Naum Sekulovski strained his hamstring in the club’s final training session on Friday morning.
Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will be forced to juggle his line-up ahead of Saturday-s match with Central Coast after hard working utility Naum Sekulovski strained his hamstring in the club-s final training session on Friday morning.
It-s unfortunate timing for Sekulovski who has been a shining light at left back since being moved into the back four last month.
While the injury is only expected to sideline Sekulovski for a week Mitchell must make moves to cover for his absence in a crucial outing against the Mariners at Members Equity Stadium.
Brazilian playmaker Amaral will also be on the sidelines after being unable to overcome a knee strain but the squad has been boosted with the return of crafty left winger Nick Rizzo following a week’s absence with groin soreness.
“It’s not make or break but its getting close to it,” Mitchell said after training on Friday.
“It’s a big game and as we go on we’re running out of games so it’d be nice to get the three points and stabilise a little bit at home for the run in.
“I thought we performed ever so well last week and didn’t get any reward for it so it just compounds the situation tomorrow.”
Striker Eugene Dadi could be promoted to the starting eleven to allow team mate Jamie Harnwell to be moved back into defence as Mitchell contemplates a combination able to handle the A-League-s highest-scoring side. The Mariners have scored 24 goals this season but Mitchell said Perth won-t be intimidated into just defending and expects a high scoring encounter.
“We’ll be going out to attack and I think the good thing is the Mariners wont be sitting back either, they’ll be attacking and it’ll be blow for blow, hopefully we win on that count,” Mitchell said.
“At home we’ve been doing well, the crowds have been great, they’ve got behind us and we want to reward them and put a good game under our belts.
After re-signing outstanding young ‘keeper Tando Velaphi during the week, Mitchell predicted the club would be in a position to announce several more signings in the coming weeks.
Mitchell said Glory had put a contract offer to Olyroos defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and were hopeful of him remaining in Western Australia.
“With new teams coming into the competition next season there is a lot of competition for the good players who are out of contract,” Mitchell said.
“There’s a lot of people in the market for him (Topor-Stanley),” he said.
“It’s a situation where if we do well as a squad in the next couple of weeks that might help, and I think Tando signing could also help.”
Mitchell said he was sorry to lose English midfielder James Robinson from the side after it was reported on Thursday he had signed for the North Queensland Fury for next season.
Robinson played 18 matches for the Glory last season but has been limited to three appearances in 2008-09 with a series of injuries.
