Perth Glory Captain Rostyn Griffiths is confident the upcoming two-match road trip over the festive period will help “reignite” the team.
Glory face glamour side Melbourne City on Tuesday at AAMI Park and the skipper believes it’s a chance for the boys to bounce back and spark a turnaround in form.
“I think the fact we are playing away from home is a good thing at the moment,” Griffiths said.
“It gives us a chance to work on a few things and be a little bit resilient as a group. I think at this stage, we’ve obviously had a bit of a bad run and sometimes getting away, and getting away together and staying away together can reignite the flame.”
Griffiths says the team has reflected on their recent form and knows it’s not good enough.
“Lessons are always learned whether we win or lose. You know, obviously, they’ve been harsh lessons for the group because we expected to be a lot better as we have been the last couple of games but we are trying something different, we’ve put in a new formation and thrown a few new players in and that’s always going to take a little bit of time to gel so I expect that to come to fruition over the next few weeks.”
“These next couple of games are going to be tough games and you know, we gotta learn our lessons pretty quickly otherwise we’ll get punished again.”
The midfield general is confident that Glory can replicate the same rich vein of form it showed in the latter half of last season in the New Year.
“The overall target obviously is going to be in the six; the finals slots and we’re still amongst that at the moment you know so, as bad as the whole situation feels, it’s not a crisis sort of situation but like you say, things can happen and you can go on a run like they did last year and all of a sudden, you’re up in the top couple and where you want to be.
“Obviously we don’t want to leave it too late and you don’t want to be having to rely on that situation. I’d rather win every week or every second week than have a ten game run sort of thing.”
“Once we sort of gel and click, I think we’ll see a huge improvement from our team.”
Glory face Melbourne City on Tuesday, December 27th at 4.50PM.
Perth will stay on the east coast and fly to Sydney to take on Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday, January 1st, 2017 with kick-off at 4.50PM.
Both matches will be broadcast on Fox Sports and ABC radio.
Glory will play its first home match of the season against Wellington on January 5.
Tickets to that match can be purchased here
Glory Facts and Stats
- The last time Perth Glory travelled to Melbourne to face City it earned their first away win there against them since January 2012.
- Perth Glory has scored four headed goals this campaign, more than any other team.
- Andy Keogh scored all three of Perth’s goals when they beat Melbourne City at AAMI Park in Round 3.
- Glory rank third in goals scored so far this season with 18, scoring an average of 1.64 goals a game.
- When it comes to shots on target, Glory rank third with 48%, marginally behind City who hit 48.9% of their chances on target.
- Perth is fourth when it comes to creating the big chances, while City is further adrift in 7th.
- Perth still has the best success rate when it comes to crossing, finding a target 31.5% of the time.
- Andy Keogh and Bruno Fornaroli both sit second in the league for goals, scoring 7 a piece.
- Chris Harold has supplied three assists from 11 chances created, putting him equal fourth for assists in the league.
- Chris Harold has also won a whopping 31 fouls utilising his scintillating pace to great effect.
- Alex Grant has amassed a whopping 34 interceptions and 10 blocks throughout this season so far.
- Nebosja Marinkovic has created the third most chances in the league with 28 – four behind Newcastle’s Andrew Hoole.
- Liam Reddy has shown his quality this season making an outstanding 35 saves to put him second in the league – four behind ex-Glory player Jack Duncan.
Match Details
Tuesday, 27 December 2016
Melbourne City FC v Perth Glory
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-Off: 7:50PM (Local) (7:50PM (AEDT))
Referee: Shaun Evans
Assistant Referee 1: Ryan Gallagher
Assistant Referee 2: Owen Goldrick
Fourth Official: Adam Fielding
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on Fox Sports 505 from 7.30pm (AEDT) and Sky Sport 4 (New Zealand)
Radio Broadcast: 774 ABC Melbourne, 720 ABC Perth, ABC Local Radio Vic/WA, Grandstand Digital, Online & via the ABC Radio Mobile App – A-league Live, 1116 SEN (Melbourne)
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #MCYvPER
To purchase tickets visit www.aleague.com.au
Melbourne City FC Squad: 1.Thomas SORENSEN (gk), 2.Manny MUSCAT, 3.Josh ROSE, 4.Connor CHAPMAN, 5.Ivan FRANJIC, 8.Neil KILKENNY, 9.Nicolas COLAZO, 10.Anthony CACERES, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 12.Nick FITZGERALD, 17.Tim CAHILL, 18.Paulo RETRE, 20.Dean BOUZANIS (gk), 21. Ruon TONGYIK, 23.Bruno FORNAROLI (c), 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Fernando BRANDAN, 34.Denis GENREAU
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 4.Connor CHAPMAN (promoted), 34.Denis GENREAU (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 7.Corey GAMEIRO (ACL – season), 22.Michael JAKOBSEN (calf – 1-2 weeks), 28.Steve KUZMANOVSKI (ACL – season), 6.Osama MALIK (quad – 2-4 weeks)
Perth Glory Squad: 2.Alex GRANT, 3.Marc WARREN, 4.Shane LOWRY, 6.Dino DJULBIC, 8.Rostyn GRIFFITHS (c), 9.Andy KEOGH, 10.Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 13.Nicholas FEELY (gk), 14.Chris HAROLD, 15.Brandon WILSON, 16.Joe MILLS, 17.Diego CASTRO, 19.Josh RISDON, 21.Jamal REINERS, 22.Adam TAGGART, 23.Kosta PETRATOS, 24.Milan SMILJANIC, 33.Liam REDDY (gk)
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 2.Alex Grant (promoted), 21.Jamal REINERS (promoted), 23.Kosta PETRATOS (promoted)
Outs: 20.Aryn WILLIAMS (not selected)
Unavailable: 18.Mitch OXBORROW (Foot – 4 weeks)
