Perth Glory defender Scott Jamieson is confident that the underdogs tag will suit his team they prepare for Friday night’s Elimination Final against Melbourne Victory.
Perth Glory defender Scott Jamieson is confident that the underdogs tag will suit his team they prepare for Friday night’s Elimination Final against Melbourne Victory.
Ange Postecoglou’s side will be heavily backed to prevail in the Sudden Death clash at Etihad Stadium and Jamieson is quite happy for the hosts to carry the burden of that extra pressure.
“If you look at where we were six weeks ago,” he said, “to get where we are now was unexpected.
“But now we’re not going to rest and take it easy.
“We want to enjoy it and play as many games as we can starting with this week against a side that was pretty much everyone’s favourite to win the competition at the start of the season.
“I said when I first moved over here that I was surprised by the fact that people in the eastern states don’t really take any notice of us and it’s a good thing.
“They (Victory) are in the finals and have had a good season and have some real standout players, so there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be favourites.
“But we’re out west and we’re just going to do our thing and hopefully we’ll come through and they won’t.
And the former Adelaide and Sydney left-back feels that the pressure he and his colleagues have endured during their dramatic late run to reach the finals will provide them with another psychological edge over Friday’s opponents.
“We’ve effectively been playing finals football for the last six weeks,” he said, “and that’s the biggest advantage for us, because they haven’t.
“I don’t think we’ll get carried away or anything because we’ve lived with that level of pressure and learned from it, so we have that in our locker and they don’t.
“We’ve got to draw on that and hopefully use that to our advantage.”
With Liam Miller set to return from suspension and Shane Smeltz battling to overcome his head injury in time to feature, coach Alistair Edwards will have an interesting selection equation to deal with this week.
But Jamieson’s priorities are closer to home.
“Shane’s a big game player and he’s raring to go,” he said.
“I’m pretty confident that he will play.
“If he does come in, it’ll be good to have him back, but I don’t think it’ll be easy for him to come back in because of the form of Heff (Dean Heffernan) at the weekend.
“Decisions have to be made and either one of them would do a good job for the team.
“With Liam coming back as well, it’s the manager’s decision along with the assistant coach, but as long as my name’s on the team-list, the rest can take care of itself.”
Fellow-defender Michael Thwaite, meanwhile, believes that the momentum built up by the West Australian side in recent weeks will prove vital in the knockout phase of the competition.
“It’s all coming together really well for us,” he said, “and for the first time this season, every little factor is working.
“Everyone is doing their jobs spot-on.
“The finals is a whole new ball game.
“It could be our last weekend, or part of a magical run and definitely no-one here wants to go on an early holiday.”
MELBOURNE VICTORY v PERTH GLORY
Friday, 5 April
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
Kick-off: 7.30pm (4.30pm – Perth time)
