Perth Glory defender Scott Neville believes the club’s mouth-watering pre-season clashes against English Premiership opponents will be an invaluable learning experience for him and his new team mates ahead of the Hyundai A-League season.
Perth Glory defender Scott Neville believes the club-s mouth-watering pre-season clashes against English Premiership opponents will be an invaluable learning experience for him and his new team mates ahead of the Hyundai A-League season.
Neville is one of a number of young guns recruited by Perth for the 2009/10 campaign and is jumping out of his skin at the prospect of tackling the top-shelf talent heading to WA.
Perth are scheduled to play the newly promoted EPL side Wolverhampton Wanderers in July and are working to secure another match against a top-flight team in what is shaping to be a football feast for Glory supporters and players alike.
“It should be entertaining and exciting,” said Neville.
“The striker for Wolves, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, he’s scored 25 goals this year, it should be interesting to see how good he really is, see his movement off the ball and how fast he is.
“That’s what you strive for, to play against those types of players and just try to learn as much as you can. I want to soak in as much information from them because they’re obviously pros at the highest level and that’s what you-re aiming to achieve,” Neville said.
Wolverhampton wrapped up its promotion to England’s top tier after securing the Championship crown last weekend and will use the trip to Western Australia as a key pre-season platform from which to launch their assault on the EPL.
The games will also be instrumental in Glory-s 2009/10 preparations as a new look squad hits the field for the West Aussie outfit this season. Neville is one of a new breed of players hungry for success at Perth and few would argue he has the potential to help the Glory achieve a finals spot this season.
Neville was Glory-s 2008/09 National Youth League player of the year and burst onto the Hyundai A-League scene in sensational style with a stunning debut that help inspire a 3-2 home win against eventual Champions Melbourne.
The 20 year old has even more reason to be excited about taking on the international visitors in July after being placed in cotton wool for the month to overcome groin soreness.
“It was just overuse,” admitted Neville. “I’d played two or three seasons straight and there was just some moderate impact on the groin around the bone.”
“I played a lot of games and was training twice a day last year and I’m still growing so it affected the groin a bit and it basically just needed a rest.
“Luckily it happened right at the end of the season so I could just rest it and make sure I do everything right so now that it’s time to come back to training it’s good again.”
It has been an impressive rise through the ranks for Neville and the youngster hopes his experiences can be a beacon for the many other talented players in the state who are chasing their football dream.
“It’s just awesome, anything can happen in football,” he said.
“You can have a couple of good games and get spotted and the Youth League is just such a good chance for everyone that plays in it to shine and get their chance in the first team.”
“It’s just a great opportunity for everyone,” he said.
