PGFC Academy First Team Head Coach Ruben Zadkovich has called upon his side to show more ruthlessness at both ends of the field in Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated showdown with Floreat Athena at E&D Litis Stadium (kick-off at 3pm).
The Glory youngsters will tackle the runaway league leaders looking to extend a run of just one defeat in six games which has kept their top-four hopes very much alive.
But while pleased with much of what he has seen from his side in recent weeks, Zadkovich feels that there is still room for improvement in key areas.
“We need to go out there and keep building on the mentality, the attitude and the application that we’ve been setting for ourselves,” he said.
“We need to be just a bit more ruthless in both boxes.
“If we do that, our football will definitely be good enough.
“It’s about putting it together and trying to get a 90-plus-minute performance in which we marry up all the different aspects of our game that we’ve been working on.
“We do work on a lot week to week and give these young guys a lot of different challenges which, to be honest, they are taking in their stride, so we just need to make sure that we put it altogether against Floreat.”
The hosts have won ten and drawn two of their 12 NPL games this term, in addition to securing a place in the FFA Cup Round of 32 and Zadkovich is under no illusions about the threat they will pose this weekend.
“They are a quality team and are undefeated for a reason,” he said.
“They have some high-quality individuals and an experienced group that has been around the traps for some time, so we’re expecting a tough game.
“They can mix it up quite well and are quite physical, so we’ll have to be at our best defensively to compete first of all and try and nullify their threats as a starting point.
“And we’ll look to play our type of football as well, which, when we put it all together, is good enough to beat anyone.”
Ahead of the First Team game, the Under-18s will be in action from 11am seeking to consolidate their position in the top four, while the Under-20s are set to get underway at 1pm knowing that a victory would see them leapfrog Floreat into second place and could move them to the top of the table should current leaders Bayswater City fail to beat Balcatta.
Do get along to lend the lads your support if you can!
(picture courtesy of Tom McCarthy)
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