Perth Glory’s young guns have a tough task ahead in the upcoming Round 8 fixture against current PS4 National Premier League WA leaders Sorrento, on Sunday afternoon.
The youngsters are coming off two solid performances, a win at Mandurah City and a hard fought 0-0 draw against Stirling Lions last weekend.
Glory defender Jack Iredale said the defensive performance last week was outstanding.
“I was proud of how the team defended last week, especially with such a young back four,” he said.
“I thought as a team we controlled the majority of the game and certainly had our chances to score, but in saying that we had to defend pretty frantically to keep a clean sheet. Luke (Bodnar) cleared one off the line, and Jordan (Thurtell) made about three or four point blank saves to keep us in the game.”
Iredale, who has been training with the A-League squad this season, said he expected a tough game against the leaders.
“Sorrento are always a tough physical team and are very hard to deal with from the dead ball, so it’s going to be a massive test for the young lads to deal with,” he said.
“But I think we’ve shown in the first part of the season that we are good enough to deal with teams like this, we just need to be switched on for the whole 90 minutes and can’t lose our focus, because a team like Sorrento will punish you for that.”
The Glory youngsters beat the Gulls (Sorrento) twice last season in close games, and head coach John Gibson is expecting more of the same on Sunday.
“They (Sorrento) arrive on top of the table and are the form team of the competition – we have had some fantastic contests over years and this one will be no different,” he said.
“We go into this game like we do every week, looking for a strong consistent team performance. It’s all about us, and what we do, and if we continue to be process driven, the result will take care of itself.”
Kick-off to the main match is at 3pm.
Match Details
Sunday April 9, 2017
PS4 National Premier League WA – Week 8
Perth Glory v Sorrento
Ashfield Reserve
Under 18’s – 11am, Under 20’s – 1pm, First Team – 3pm
