Tony Popovic has stressed that ladder positions and club records have been put firmly on the back-burner in the build up to Saturday’s highly-anticipated clash with Melbourne City at AAMI Park (kick-off at 4.30pm WST).
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Victory for the visitors would see them leapfrog the hosts into second place, while also extending the club’s record Hyundai A-League winning streak to seven games.
But according to the Head Coach, such factors are not distracting his charges from the job at hand.
“If we get to second spot just after the halfway mark [of the season], that’s great,” he said, “but a lot needs to happen on Saturday night to get there.
“It’s not something we’ve spoken about this week as a group and we won’t heading into the game.
“As for the record, we’re very happy to have it.
“It’s obviously something that doesn’t happen very often, so we’re very pleased to have created some more history at this football club and will do everything we can to keep it going.
“But again, it’s not something we’re talking about as a group.
“We’re under no illusions about how hard the task will be against Melbourne City; they have a fantastic home record.”
Popovic went on to identify Glory’s Round 9 victory over City at AAMI Park as something of a watershed moment for his side.
“We had a great result when our good run started by beating them there… I think we can take a lot psychologically from that game,” he said.
“We lost to Melbourne Victory the week before and were bottom of the table and we put together a very good performance and that’s a real positive for us.
“Since then, I think we’ve got better. It’s a different team to what it was six weeks ago and hopefully we can get the same outcome as we did then.
“We’re always confident going into games and we’re just focusing on this game to extend this run and keep our good form going.”
In terms of team news, Juande (groin), Osama Malik (hamstring) and Nick D’Agostino (international duty) are again set to miss out, but Popovic is optimistic that both Chris Ikonomidis (knee) and Ivan Franjic (calf) will be fit enough to return to the squad and new signing Vince Lia is also a chance to feature.
Match Details
Melbourne City v Perth Glory
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (WST) (7:30pm (Local))
Referee: Daniel Elder
Assistant Referee 1: David Walsh
Assistant Referee 2: Tony Peart
Fourth Official: Alex King
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 505 from 7:00pm (AEDT) and Sky Sport 7 (New Zealand), Kayo Sports (www.kayosports.com.au) and MyFootball Live App, Live Fast and Data Free for Telstra mobile customers
Radio Broadcast: myfootballnation.com (SEN+, SEN2, 6PR).
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #MCYvPER
To purchase tickets visit www.a-league.com.au/tickets
Melbourne City FC squad: 2.Scott GALLOWAY, 3.Scott JAMIESON (c), 4.Harrison DELBRIDGE, 5.Jack HENDRY, 6.Josh BRILLANTE, 7.Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 9.Jamie MACLAREN, 10.Florin BERENGUER 11.Craig NOONE, 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON, 14.Markel SUSAETA 19.Lachlan WALES, 20.Adrian LUNA, 22.Curtis GOOD, 23.Dean BOUZANIS (gk), 36.Kerrin STOKES, 38.Yaya DUKULY, 39.Idrus ABDULAHI, 46.Joe GAUCI (gk), 49.Stefan COLAKOVSKI
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 2.Scott GALLOWAY (returns from injury), 5.Jack HENDRY (new signing)
Outs: nil
Unavailable: 1.Tom GLOVER (gk) (international duty), 17.Denis GENREAU (international duty), 21.Ramy NAJJARINE (international duty), 34.Connor METCALFE (international duty), 40.Richard WINDBICHLER (hamstring)
Perth Glory squad: 1.Tando VELAPHI (gk), 2.Alex GRANT, 3.Jacob TRATT, 4.Gregory WUTHRICH, 5.Ivan FRANJIC, 7.Joel CHIANESE, 8.James MEREDITH, 9.Bruno FORNAROLI, 12.Kim SOO-BEOM, 16.Tomislav MRCELA, 17.Diego CASTRO (c), 19.Chris IKONOMIDIS, 20.Jake BRIMMER, 22.Vince LIA, 23.Dane INGHAM, 28.Gabriel POPOVIC, 29.Kristian POPOVIC, 33.Liam REDDY (gk), 88.Neil KILKENNY
**2-3 to be omitted**
Ins: 5.Ivan FRANJIC (returns from injury), 19.Chris IKONOMIDIS (returns from injury), 22.Vince LIA (new signing)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 6.Dino DJULBIC (ankle – indefinite), 13.Osama MALIK (hamstring – 1 week), 18.Nicholas D’AGOSTINO (international duty), 27.JUANDE (groin – 1 week)
#OneGlory
