Perth Glory coach Alistair Edwards has called upon the club’s fans to come out in force and roar their side to victory in Saturday night’s do-or-die showdown with Adelaide United.
Perth Glory coach Alistair Edwards has called upon the club’s fans to come out in force and roar their side to victory in Saturday night’s do-or-die showdown with Adelaide United.
Ten thousand complimentary tickets have been distributed to junior clubs around WA as part of a joint initiative on the part of Perth Glory and Football West and Edwards believes that the bumper crowd can play a key role in helping drive the hosts into the finals.
“If we can get the ground pretty full,” he said, “there’s going to be a really special atmosphere.
“The initiative between Glory and Football West is a fantastic one.
“Glory is part of the football landscape and the football family in WA and we’re looking to get a lot more people to be part of this great club.
“We’ve been crying out for these kinds of football environments in Perth for a long time and it’s up to the fans now.
“It’s all very well talking about what’s not right and what should be happening, now let’s get the fans to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
“It’s up to them now to come and see some really good players perform for Glory and for Adelaide.
“We’ve got some of the greatest fans in the country and they have a vital role to play in driving us back to being the benchmark club in Australian football.”
Edwards went on to reveal that youngsters Ndumba Makeche and Daniel De Silva could make their starting debuts against the Reds and insisted that Glory have enough strength in depth to cover the absence of injured attacking trio Travis Dodd, Shane Smeltz and Chris Harold and suspended midfielder Liam Miller.
“We’ve still got a lot of experience in the side,” he said, “it’s more about shuffling the deck to make sure that we can still play the way we want to play.
“We are not afraid to throw the young, inexperienced lads in and you’ve seen with the likes of De Silva that they can come in and do very well.
“We’re confident that whoever we put on the park will play really well for this great club.
“There’s a good chance that Daniel and Ndumba will start, Gareth (Naven) and myself will have a long chat about that later today.
“We’ve seen what Danny can do.
“He’s not a baby anymore, he’s an old 16-year-old with two games under his belt and he’s the kind of guy that thrives on the kind of atmosphere that we’re going to have at nib Stadium on Saturday.”
Shane Smeltz, meanwhile, has backed himself to return to action next week should Perth Glory qualify for the Finals Series, despite returning from international duty with New Zealand having received 15 stitches in a head wound inflicted by a reckless challenge from a New Caledonian defender.
“It’s calmed down over the last couple of days,” he said, “but obviously it’s still a little bit tender.
“It’s been frustrating because every time I’ve been away on international duty I seem to have come back with an injury of some sort.
“This one is especially frustrating because the body feels fine and I’m just not right in the head.
“It’s not going to be healed up properly for four to six weeks, but I get the stitches out on Monday or Tuesday and I should be fine for next week.
“I’m sure I’ll have to do some padding for next week, so maybe we’ll dig out a headband out as well.”
PERTH GLORY v ADELAIDE UNITED
Saturday, 30 March
nib Stadium
Kick-off: 6.45pm
