Glory fans in the northern suburbs will have an opportunity to watch their team on their doorstep this Wednesday afternoon when Alistair Edwards’ men take on a Northern All Stars select team at the ECU Sports Complex in Joondalup.
Glory fans in the northern suburbs will have an opportunity to watch their team on their doorstep this Wednesday afternoon when Alistair Edwards’ men take on a Northern All Stars select team at the ECU Sports Complex in Joondalup.
Drawn from local State League and amateur clubs, the All Stars will be guided by ECU Joondalup coach Dale McCulloch and his opposite number Edwards sees this latest friendly as another key part of Glory’s pre-season preparations.
“We’ve taken the game to the central and southern regions with our trips to Cockburn, Kwinana, Gosnells and Mandurah,” he said, “and now we’re taking it to the northern suburbs.
“We’ve got a couple of games in that area which will finalise our games in the community just before we head into the season proper.
“It’s another good opportunity for us following on from last week’s games against Heart in which most of the guys got 90 minutes either at Inglewood or down in Mandurah.
“Now we can get some more valuable game time into our squad on Wednesday afternoon.”
Last Saturday’s second clash with Heart in Mandurah was unfortunately played out in atrocious weather conditions and Edwards is hoping that the trip to Joondalup will provide his players with more of an opportunity to play their normal game.
“The first game against Heart was ok,” he said, “because we were able to play football the way we want to play, but the monsoon conditions in the second game made it pretty impossible for both teams to play properly.
“That said, we showed tremendous character in the way we played and it was a great compliment to us that Heart juts tried to do anything they could to stop us playing.
“It was a very testing afternoon all round, but we played with ten men in the second-half and equalised with ten men and that provided a clear indication of the character within the group.
“Hopefully the weather will be a lot kinder to us on Wednesday and we can get back to playing the style of football that we want to play.”
Edwards went on to confirm that Chris Harold and Jack Clisby are likely to see some game time against the All Stars having shaken off respective ankle and foot injuries, but Glory expects to lose Steve Pantelidis to suspension after the defender’s controversial dismissal in Mandurah.
Admission to the game will be by gold coin donation with the proceeds to be split between Telethon and ECU Joondalup’s Under-12s who are raising funds for a trip to participate in the upcoming Volkswagen Junior Masters Tournament in Sydney.
Northern All Stars v Perth Glory
ECU Joondalup Sport Complex
Wednesday 18th September 2013
Kick-off: 4pm
Entry: Gold coin donation
Gareth Morgan
