In-form duo Bas van den Brink and Steven McGarry are confident that Perth Glory can use last week’s vital 1-0 win over Brisbane to kick-start the kind of run that carried the club all the way to last season’s Grand Final.
In-form duo Bas van den Brink and Steven McGarry are confident that Perth Glory can use last week’s vital 1-0 win over Brisbane to kick-start the kind of run that carried the club all the way to last season’s Grand Final.
After drawing with Newcastle Jets on New Year’s Eve, Ian Ferguson’s side lost only three of their subsequent 15 regular season games and both the defender and the midfielder believe that a similar streak is very much achievable again this term.
“I think we are actually a bit better off around this period than we were last year,” said van den Brink, “because we had our turnaround against the Jets and then we played Roar at home and played really well and that is when we turned the season around.
“So in regards to that, we’re actually a little bit ahead of schedule, even though we’ve still got some catching up to do.”
And the Dutchman’s sentiments were very much echoed by his Scottish team-mate.
“Getting those three points at Brisbane last weekend was massive,” he said.
“Last year we struggled early on the road as well and we overcame that, so hopefully we can do the same again this season.
“It’s a very important period of the season and we’ll be wanting to take as many points out if it as we can.
“This is when we made our run last year and now we want to focus on doing that again.
“We are desperate to get to another Grand Final and get as high up the table as we can.”
van den Brink also claimed that the hard-fought nature of last Friday’s victory at Suncorp Stadium spoke volumes about the character within the Glory squad.
“We know we have to improve a few things,” he said, “but I think the best thing about the weekend was that we worked really hard and were desperate to get the win.
“That has given us a confidence boost, but obviously we keep that confidence by winning.
“Although I think we were a bit lucky, we worked hard to get that result.
“We know what we have to improve upon and I’m confident that we’ll do that this week.”
McGarry, meanwhile, is similarly confident that the men in purple can make it three wins on the bounce at the expense of Western Sydney Wanderers on Thursday, despite the league new boys heading west buoyed by their remarkable 6-1 mauling of Adelaide last time out.
“They’ve probably done better than anyone was expecting them to do this year,” he said.
“They have a very solid base and teams have found it hard to score against them.
“They were struggling to score, but they managed to score six goals at the weekend so we’ll definitely be wary of their threat.
“But we’ve got to take the positives out of the last time we played them.
“Even though we didn’t score, we created plenty of chances and their ‘keeper had a tremendous game, so we’ll be confident going into this game.”
And McGarry’s personal confidence levels are also pretty high following several fine recent performances in his preferred attacking midfield role and in particular, his wonder-strike that ultimately proved the difference between the two sides at Suncorp.
“Travis (Dodd) gave me some stick last year saying I only scored the two-yarders,” he said with a smile, “but a goal is a goal and that one was pretty special and I’ll never forget it.
“Position-wise, I hope to stay where I am because I love playing there.
“It’s pretty difficult for the manager because we’ve got a big squad with a lot of good guys sitting on the bench.
“Billy (Mehmet) is a fantastic player, but he must be pretty frustrated not to be involved and luckily it’s me and Smeltzy (Shane Smeltz) just now.”
