Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino has called on his team-mates to produce a massive Boxing Day effort against the Newcastle Jets at ME Bank Stadium this weekend.
Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino has called on his team-mates to produce a massive Boxing Day effort against the Newcastle Jets at ME Bank Stadium this weekend.
After two disappointing matches away from home, the squad is glad to be back in their own backyard and are determined to get back on a winning run in front of a huge home crowd.
The Glory will enjoy five of the last eight games in Perth, where they’ve only lost two games since Round 4 2008-09, and Pellegrino believes a good effort for the coach on Boxing Day against the in-form Jets could boost the confidence and enable the players to capitalise on that advantage in the run home.
“Without a doubt, we’re going to be playing our hearts out to get a good run with the home games,” Pellegrino said.
“We wanted to start it with the Gold Coast and that didn’t happen, so now we’ve got to put it behind us for we’ve got a number of home games coming up to win.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to us. The coaches can only do so much outside the pitch and it comes down to the players on the pitch to pull together do well, not just for our fans and everyone else but also for the coaching staff.
“For Kenny (assistant Kenny Lowe) and Peter (fitness coach Peter Cklamovski) and Mitch, they do a lot for us.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone says it comes down to us and it comes down to us picking up results,” Pellegrino said.
As competition in the Hyundai A-League heats up, a couple of missed opportunities have hurt the Glory, with the squad looking to use this weekend-s clash to lift them back into the top six.
With a contingent of new players entering the squad this season, Pellegrino says Perth are continuing to work on gelling together as a unit and helping some of the players to settle in.
“I know a lot of people expected us to be sitting a bit higher than what we are but … it is difficult when you’re involved in a squad and a bunch of new boys come in.”
“When there are six or seven new players, you’ve still got to try and comprehend each other and get on and know how each other plays and that and I think that’s still coming together with our side.”
But last season’s Most Glorious Player knows the confidence can only be turned around through grinding out results on the pitch, starting with the Jets.
“We’ve got to just put our heads together and come up with that self belief,” Pellegrino said.
“We still have some time to turn it around, it’s not like we’ve missed out on the finals completely. There’s still plenty of games to go and we can still pick up ample enough points to make a push for the finals.”
