It finally rained goals at Perth’s ME Bank Stadium after the Glory’s recent dry spell ended with a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle, coach Dave Mitchell confident the Boxing Day romp will give his team the confidence to continue that form.
It finally rained goals at Perth’s ME Bank Stadium after the Glory’s recent dry spell ended with a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle, coach Dave Mitchell confident the Boxing Day romp will give his team the confidence to continue that form.
As injuries and an inability to select the same XI each week took their toll, Mitchell was all too aware that a confidence-booster may be all that was needed to get his team firing on all cylinders yet again.
That finally came on Boxing Day as Naum Sekulovski drilled a well-taken free kick along the ground in the first half to break the floodgates.
Knowing his team was always capable of such a performance, Mitchell was delighted to see his team finally gel, the coach hopeful of carrying the momentum into the rest of the season.
“Hopefully this nails us in the top-six and we can build on it,” Mitchell said.
“Our home games are important for us because we don’t seem to pick up too many points away, so we have to keep home strong.”
“It was a convincing win and we played for 90 minutes, which was good. We kept a clean sheet, were resolute and strong. It was an important game for us, all the boys were hurting from past results and comments that have been made. They are a good bunch so I’m happy for the players, the club and the supporters. It was a good day.”
The Jets came to Perth in roaring form after four straight wins, but once Sekulovski drilled the opener in the 19th minute for his first goal this season, Mitchell noticed his side lift across the park as club veteran Jamie Harnwell underlined his cult status with home brace, with Mile Sterjovski adding a penalty.
Mitchell said the result was a good reward for those that remained firm during the tough times.
“Over the last few weeks we have lost a little bit of confidence and that was due to some of the results. We scored at the right time and got the confidence from that,” he said.
“There was a good crowd and as a whole you talk about pressure, but Tony Sage has been a rock solid supporter of myself, Lui Giuliani has said that the club will back me and know that I have the best interests of the club at heart. When you talk about Jamie Harnwell it’s true what they say about him, when you cut him and purple comes out in his blood.”
“It was a great performance and there were a lot of great players. Andy Todd, Jacob Burns and Chris Coyne were outstanding. Sterjovski stepped up and of course there’s Mr Harnwell. It was a great team performance and it was very satisfying.”
“With Jamie up front with Mile it’s a good connection and partnership. We’ve analysed the problems we’ve had in the past, looked over them and worked through them at training. It all clicked, but if Newcastle scored first we might have been nervous and not got back in the game. It was important we scored first to get that confidence. “
“Hopefully this will settle down a lot of people outside the club who have been throwing some darts.”
