Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has warned Sydney FC not to take his in-form side lightly ahead of Sunday’s pivotal Hyundai A-League clash at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has warned Sydney FC not to take his in-form side lightly ahead of Sunday’s pivotal Hyundai A-League clash at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Glory have arrived in Sydney to complete preparations for the vital Round 16 meeting with John Kosmina’s men who have struggled to replicate their early-season form in recent weeks losing three of their previous five fixtures.
In contrast, the visitors are among the form sides in the competition having followed up their dramatic 3-1 triumph over Melbourne Victory two weeks ago with a hard-fought point in Wellington on Saturday.
And while his own side could do with a win to keep its slim hopes of a finals berth alive, Mitchell was quick to remind the hosts of the need to perform in order to remain within reach of the all-important top four.
“The last month I’ve been really happy with the way we’ve been performing but we probably didn’t get the results,” Mitchell said.
“It was a difficult game against Wellington because they’d lost 6-1 (to Adelaide United) the week before so they came out all guns blazing and made it very difficult, but it was a good result for us to get that point.
“And coming to this game where Sydney are under a little bit of pressure, they’re not playing their best and we’re sort of confident so we’re going into the game looking forward to it.”
With his side six points adrift of the top four with six rounds remaining, Mitchell is not yet prepared to give up on his side’s top-four prospects but concedes it will be an uphill battle.
“We keep looking at (the top four) every week but it’s not getting any closer, we’re running out of games,” he said.
“For us it’s going to be a very difficult task so our main objective is to play well, get some wins and try and get as close as we can and if it means sneaking in that’d be a fantastic achievement.
“We didn’t have the best of starts and had a lot of hurdles to overcome. There were injuries and perhaps most significantly we didn-t have the whole squad together in one place because of the Olympics and work visa problems.
It’s all come together now, the team has really bonded on the pitch and you can see that clearly in our results.”
Asked to account for the recent improvements on the pitch Mitchell cited the newfound certainty over his own future, having re-signed for a further two seasons last month, as a contributing factor.
“Part of the scenario was signing my contract (which confirmed) I’m going to be here,” he said.
“I think a few players weren’t sure (who would be the long-term coach of the side) and their own contracts were running out but that’s been nailed on now that I’m actually here and I’ll be directing things for the next two years, and I think that’s calmed everyone down.”
