Glory skipper Jamie Coyne believes Perth has the firepower to beat the odds and overwhelm the table-topping Melbourne Victory at Members Equity Stadium this Saturday night.
Glory skipper Jamie Coyne believes Perth has the firepower to beat the odds and overwhelm the table-topping Melbourne Victory at Members Equity Stadium on Saturday night.
The last time the two sides met it was Melbourne who overawed Perth with a clinical display at the Dome but with the Victorians playing two games in Western Australia in the next six weeks Coyne said the Glory are determined to turn the tables and show who is top dog on home turf.
Perth showed they-re capable of more than matching it with any side in the league after a classy showing against last-season’s premiers Central Coast. But after conceding a late equaliser to the Mariners, Coyne is more than aware the Glory will have to be on their toes for 90+ minutes if they’re to secure an invaluable win over the Victory.
“I think the thing is with Melbourne, they may go through patches in the game when they’re not playing very well but they’ve got the ability in a couple of players to just snatch a goal from nowhere,” Coyne said.
“You can control the game and then from nowhere they can create something, so we’ll have to be wary of that but it’s our home game so we have to make sure to take the game to them and score a few goals.
“It is going to be a hard game … it’s all about individual battles all over the park, if we win enough individual battles, we should win the game.”
One Glory player winning the individual battle week in, week out is star striker Nikita Rukavytsya, whose classy double against Central Coast last Saturday saw him move to second on the Hyundai A-League’s goal scoring chart with eight goals, just one behind Wellington’s Shane Smeltz.
With Rukavytsya, Eugene Dadi, Adrian Trinidad and Jamie Harnwell a threat for Perth and Melbourne boasting the likes of Archie Thompson, Danny Allsopp and Ney Fabiano, Saturday-s match has all the hallmarks of a high scoring affair.
“Nikki has been fantastic, he is getting in the right positions and is finishing superbly,” Coyne said.
“We-re creating some great chances and with a bit more luck last weekend we could have got another two. There was one saved on the line from Nikita and Adrian Trinidad hit the post as well. The boys are playing really well and we’ve got to keep that going.
“If we can get a good result against Melbourne that should push us back up towards the top four and hopefully we can get a bit of a roll going on,” Coyne said.
