Perth Glory Coach Dave Mitchell will take a cautious approach into the club’s final pre-season clash against Gold Coast in Bunbury with a number of players to be given additional time to recover from niggling injuries.
Perth Glory Coach Dave Mitchell will take a cautious approach into the club-s final pre-season clash against Gold Coast in Bunbury with a number of players to be given additional time to recover from niggling injuries.
The club-s planned camp in the South West town was scuttled after a virus hit the squad while there have plenty of sore bodies following a tough match schedule that saw Glory play three games in a week, including two against English Premier League opponents.
“We were disappointed not being able to go to Bunbury earlier in the week but its something we-ve had to deal with and now we-re looking forward to the game and putting out the strongest side we possibly can,” Mitchell said.
“Our biggest thing is just blending the team together and with the season only a fortnight away these games are important,” Mitchell said.
“We’ve had a good pre-season in terms of getting the players fit but the late arrival of our overseas recruits has meant we haven-t had much time on the park together and we-re working hard to gel the team. That’s why we wanted to go down to Bunbury and spend some get together, have a bit of a laugh as well as train hard but that wasn-t an option in the end so that was unfortunate,” said Mitchell.
Socceroos midfielder Jacob Burns won-t be risked after recently recovering from a hamstring strain nor will defender Andy Todd, who has been impressive in his first few matches with the club, after picking up a knock against North Queensland last Saturday.
Mitchell is also unable to call on utility Jamie Harnwell who is sidelined for six weeks while youngsters Andrija Jukic (calf) and Anthony Skorich (ankle) are also unavailable for selection.
While Perth has several players unavailable they can rely on the experience of Socceroos Chris Coyne and Mile Sterjovski along with Eugene Dadi, Jamie Coyne Victor Sikora, Adriano Pellegrino and Branko Jelic. Coyne will partner exciting young prospect Brent Griffiths in the heart of Glory-s defence while Mitchell is expected to give trialist Todd Howarth the nod at left back.
After playing North Queensland Fury last weekend Mitchell said he is looking forward to seeing the Hyundai A-League-s other 2009/10 entrant in action on Saturday.
“It’ll be good to see Gold Coast, they’ll be one of the front runners this year and they-ve got a lot of good players at the club,” he said.
“While we-ll be primarily focusing on our structures and how the team plays together, it is always nice to win. Both sides will be taking it seriously and using the outing as good preparation for the first game of the season,” said Mitchell.
Perth Glory Squad: 1.Tando Velaphi (gk), 2.Jimmy DOWNEY, 3.Jamie COYNE, 6.Chris COYNE, 8.Victor SIKORA, 11.Branko JELIC, 12.Scott NEVILLE, 13.Scott BULLOCH, 14.Eugene DADI, 16.Adriano PELLEGRINO, 18.Brent GRIFFITHS, 19.Naum SEKULOVSKI, 20.Aleks VRTESKI (gk), 21.Mile STERJOVSKI, 24.Todd HOWARTH (trial), 25.Adam TAGGART (trial), 26. Clayton ARNEZ (trial)
* two to be omitted
