After beating League Champions Bayswater City last week, it doesn’t get any easier for Perth Glory’s young guns this weekend when they clash against the QBE Night Series defending champions Floreat Athena.
Glory’s 2-1 win over City has given the youngsters a massive boost, but they take on a Floreat team that overpowered a strong Inglewood United.
Glory coach John Gibson is confident the squad has the depth to take on Athena.
“We have good depth, and whoever is available on Saturday will enjoy the challenge.” he said.
“With this program the playing / coaching group is always flexible and adaptable – we adjust accordingly and provide solutions, the group is tremendous that way.”
For defender Ross Millard the win was great for the youngster’s confidence.
“We went into the game really confident due to such a positive ending to our Foxtel National Youth League campaign,” he said.
“Our work rate was second to none and that was essential in getting a result against a good Bayswater team. We were disappointed with the goal conceded; however on the other hand our attacking plays was excellent and caused them all sorts of problems, and we took a lot out of the game.”
The young gun’s form has already seen him promoted to the A-League bench and the 19-year-old he will be doing his best to repeat it soon.
“It was a great feeling to be rewarded for my efforts in the NYL with a place on the bench in the A-League,” Millard said.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and now that I’ve had a taste of it I want to continue putting my head down and work even harder. Hopefully there are many more opportunities for me to come.”
Millard said Saturday’s game will be another huge challenge but one he and the other players are looking forward to. “It’s another tough test, but we’re looking forward to the challenge. Like we did against Bayswater we’ll go out there with great self-belief in ourselves and put together another great performance, which hopefully ends up with another win,” he said.
“We always talk about taking our chances and there isn’t a better opportunity than this week to do so. We’re excited and ready to show what we can do.”
The match kicks-off at Dalmatinac Park in Spearwood at 8pm.
