Glory Head Coach Richard Garcia is backing the club’s promising crop of youngsters to continue to impress in Saturday’s home clash with Brisbane Roar (Kick-off at 7.45pm, tickets HERE).
The likes of Josh Rawlins, Giordano Colli, Callum Timmins, Daniel Stynes, Ciaran Bramwell and Aidan Edwards are all in contention for places in the squad this weekend, with three of them having started the midweek draw against Central Coast Mariners.
And Garcia believes that they will only improve as the season goes on.
View his media conference in full HERE.
“The last three games that we’ve played, we’ve done quite well considering the age and relative inexperience of the group,” he said.
“It’s just about those final bits and the bit of experience that they need to gain from these games that we’ve just had.
“You can tell every game that they’re improving and pushing further towards being better, which is fantastic.
“Now it’s about putting it together and finishing it off.
“We’ve had young guys throughout the year make debuts and back up really well, but with youth there’s always going to be that slight bit of inconsistency.
“But the consistency is starting to come with a few of them and that bodes well for the club in the future.
“These guys are realising that they are in the competition now and they need to be performing week in, week out.
“The guys that did well the other night [v Central Coast] will probably go close to starting again and there are a couple of other young guys that might come in depending on how we assess some of the other guys in the next day or so.”
Injuries to a number of senior players have provided extra opportunities for Glory’s next generation to shine and Garcia confirmed that there will be several notable absentees again on Saturday.
“We’re still down a few which is something that we’ve had to deal with all year,” he said.
“Andy [Keogh]…, Kosuke [Ota] is still a little while off and Daniel [Sturridge] is probably a little bit off as well.”
Brandon O’Neill (shoulder) is also unavailable, but Mitch Oxborrow (calf) could come back into contention and Liam Reddy is also closing in on a return from his hip-flexor injury.
Brisbane Roar, meanwhile, will arrive at HBF Park one place and one point above Glory and Garcia is quietly confident that his charges can repeat the victory they secured over the Queenslanders in Launceston less than a month ago.
“Brisbane are in a similar situation to us; they have a lot of young guys and are a fairly inexperienced group,” he said.
“For us, it’s a game that we must be looking to win.
“I thought we were fantastic the other night and it’s about going out and repeating that effort and making sure we back up not only the performance, but go and get the result as well.”
Saturday’s visitors are yet to win on the road this season, although they did manage to end Wellington’s seven-game unbeaten run with a 2-1 victory at Moreton Daily Stadium last weekend.
Former Glory Academy midfielder Henry Hore scored what proved to be the winner in that game, taking his tally for the season to three, while skipper Jay O’Shea remains Roar’s creator-in-chief having contributed three assists so far this term.
He is one of two players who have started each of their 14 games this season, former Glory man Scott Neville being the other and another regular starter has been Argentinean forward Juan Lescano who has two goals and one assist to his name.
This weekend’s game will be the 50th overall meeting between the two clubs and the 23rd at HBF Park where Roar have enjoyed nine wins to Glory’s eight.
The most recent of those victories, however, came back in April 2018.
#OneGlory
