Sitting as he does in third position on the club’s all-time record appearances list, Scott Miller certainly needs no introduction to Glory fans.
And that is perhaps fortunate, as the 45-year-old, who will be occupying the opposition dugout during Wednesday night’s friendly against Cockburn City, jokingly reckons he’s changed a fair bit since gracing the famous purple shirt as a player.
“I don’t know if any Glory fans will recognise me now with the 20kgs I’ve put on and the grey hair!” he said. “I was lucky enough to play at a great time for the club and was always treated really well by the supporters.
“We’re hoping that plenty of those fans will head down to Dalmatinac Park for the game and it’ll be great to see some familiar faces.
“I’m also really looking forward to seeing a few of my old mates like Taggs [Adam Taggart] and Nevs [Scott Neville]. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with them since they came back to the club, so it’ll be nice to have a chat.”
Cockburn will head into the game having secured a comfortable ninth-place finish in this season’s PS4 NPLWA and Miller felt that his side took a step forward after last year’s brush with relegation.
“This year, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t in relegation trouble and from the halfway stage we weren’t,” he said. That gave us the chance to throw a few more kids in and have a look at them.
“I said at the start of the season that the different budgets at the different clubs meant that there would three levels in the division; the top four or five, four or five strugglers and the rest of us somewhere in the middle and that’s kind of how it turned out.”
The home side is likely to contain a host of ex-Glory players on Wednesday night, but their Head Coach does not feel that any of them have a point to prove to their former employers.
“I really don’t feel that’s the case,” he said. “It’s just a nice way to finish the season, playing against full-time pros and I think both sides will enjoy playing on what, for me, is the best pitch in WA.
“Some of our players have experienced the professional game, while others have aspirations to get there, so it’s a chance for them to see how much quicker and more alert you need to be to get to that next level.”
Miller’s opposite number, Kenny Lowe, meanwhile, is keen to get more game time into his charges as the countdown to the start of the Hyundai A-League campaign continues.
“It’ll be another good, competitive hit-out against a match-sharp side and we’re looking forward to it,” he said.
“We’ve had a great turnout of members and fans at all of our previous pre-season games this year and I’m hoping that we’ll have another good following down there on Wednesday night.”
Kick off at Dalmatinac Park is at 7pm and admission is FREE, so do get along and lend the lads your support if you can.
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