Bas van den Brink and Liam Miller look ahead to Saturday night’s clash with Newcastle Jets at nib Stadium.
Emile Heskey may be the headline act for the Newcastle Jets right now, but Bas van den Brink and Liam Miller are both adamant that the former England striker won-t be the sole focus of Glory-s attentions when the two sides meet at nib Stadium on Saturday.
“There-s no-one we-re going to single out,” said Miller who faced Heskey several times during his spells with Manchester United and Sunderland.
“We-ll look at them as a team and take it from there.
“Newcastle are going very well at the moment and Emile is scoring a few goals so it-ll be a tough game, but hopefully we can play well and get the three points.
“They are probably full of confidence and will be coming here looking to turn us over, but we are very strong at home.
We-ve made it a fortress, so hopefully we can play our game and get the win.”
Those sentiments were echoed by van den Brink who was quick to highlight some of the Jets- other attacking threats.
“It-s going to be a difficult task,” he said, “but I think they-ve got a good side anyway, even without Heskey.
“He-s now the main man scoring goals and we-ll have to be very careful with him, but they-ve just got a generally good side with (Ryan) Griffiths and (Craig) Goodwin who-s doing well right now.
“We have to focus on their overall quality and not just on one person.”
van den Brink is a certain starter this week in the absence of Steve Pantelidis who will serve a one-match suspension after seeing red in last week-s unfortunate defeat at the hands of Sydney FC.
And the likeable Dutchman had some words of sympathy for his fellow-defender.
“He just tried to do everything to make sure they (Sydney FC) didn-t score and it didn-t work out too well.
“
It-s very sad for Panta and you don-t want to see that happening to a fellow team-mate, but these things happen in football and obviously for me, it-s great to be back.
“The way I went out of the team (with a calf injury) wasn-t the best for me and now the way Steve has gone out isn-t the best for him either, but that-s the way football goes.”
Miller, meanwhile singled out his central midfield partner Jacob Burns for special praise.
The Glory skipper has backed up a stellar 2011-2012 season by making a similarly impressive start to the new campaign and his engine-room contribution has not been lost on the former Ireland international.
“I enjoy playing in there with Burnsy,” he said.
“He-s a quality player and we play well off each other.
“We-ve got that experience now having played with each other for the last year and a bit and if we keep playing like we did at the weekend, the wins will come.”
A capacity crowd is expected to flock to nib Stadium on Saturday to see if Glory can indeed get back to winning ways and van den Brink is delighted to see the A-League going through such a boom time both on and off the field.
“The league has stepped up again this season,” he said.
“There is more quality and the games have been great so far.
“The attendances have been great around the country and I think the whole league has been lifted again for the eighth season in a row.
“It-s great to see that it-s going in the right direction.”
PERTH GLORY V NEWCASTLE JETS
Saturday, November 3
nib Stadium
Kick-off: 6.45pm
