Glory Head Coach David Zdrilic is desperate to see his side down Sydney FC on Saturday evening in order to reward the HBF Park faithful for their loyalty during what has been a challenging season for the club.
(Kick-off is at 6:45pm, grab your tickets HERE)
Click HERE to watch to his full pre-match media conference
Click HERE to watch the A-Leagues’ match preview
The men in purple will be looking to build upon the positives from their performances since the turn of the year in a bid to secure a first home victory over the Sky Blues since the 2018/19 Premiership-winning campaign.
And Zdrilic believes that the club’s supporters deserve something to celebrate.
“We need to be winning every game,” he said.
“In our situation, it may be strange to be saying that, but even going away to City, we had many chances in the first 30 minutes and goals change games.
“We need to finish those off and get momentum from scoring goals.
“When the wins start happening, it’s a totally different feeling, just like when we beat Brisbane and, of course, Auckland, who were top of the table when we beat them at home.
“We know we can do it, but the good performances don’t mean anything: we need to win games.
“We need to continue to create the chances and obviously be deadly with those chances and if we do that, we’ve got a great chance to win any game.
“We’ve seen at recent [home] games that when the fans are behind us, it’s a great atmosphere that we can generate in that stadium.
“We want to win it for us, but also for the fans.
“We want to show them that we’re building something even on the back of what has not been an easy season.”
The Round 20 fixture will, of course, see Zdrilic facing off against his former club and he is expecting them to provide a stern challenge despite having played an away AFC Cup tie on Wednesday evening which went to extra-time.
“I know well the style of play and although they’ve changed a few things, it’s a very similar system,” he said.
“They’re very aggressive.
“They had a big trip to Thailand, to Bangkok and they’ll have some confidence coming out of that game.
“But for us the focus is that we’re at home, we’ve been very strong in terms of performances, but we haven’t been getting the end results and we want to do that [on Saturday].
“Anyone that comes to Perth, I think that should be a default.
“There’s a team there to be beaten at home and we want to do that.”
In terms of early squad news, Zdrilic confirmed that midfielder Luke Amos is in line to gain his first A-League minutes for the club and both Josh Risdon and Nicholas Pennington could return from injury in time to feature.
Striker Pat Wood, however, is ineligible due to the terms of his loan deal from Sydney FC.
The Sky Blues may not be enjoying a stellar season by their own lofty standards, but they have lost just five times in their 26 previous visits to HBF Park and have scored 13 goals in their last five outings in all competitions.
Joe Lolley has led the way for Ufuk Talay’s side once again this year in terms of goals, bagging nine and the Englishman has scored a remarkable nine times in just six appearances against Glory.
Other key performers for the visitors include Polish striker Patrik Klimala whose seven goals have been matched by 20-year-old midfielder Adrian Segecic.
They currently sit just inside the top six on goal difference, but of their seven wins thus far this term, only two have come on the road.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League 2024-25 Season Round 20
Perth Glory v Sydney FC
HBF Park
Saturday 22 February 2025
Kick-off: 6:45pm
Perth Glory Squad: 1.Oli SAIL (gk), 3.Anas HAMZAOUI, 4.Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, 6.Brandon O’NEILL, 7.Nicholas PENNINGTON, 10.Nikola MILEUSNIC, 12.Taras GOMULKA, 13.Cameron COOK (gk), 14.Nathanael BLAIR, 17.Yuto MISAO, 18.Lachie WALES, 20.Trent OSTLER, 21.Luke AMOS, 22.Adam TAGGART, 26.Khoa NGO, 27.Will FRENEY, 28.Kaelan MAJEKODUNMI, 29.Tomi MRCELA, 31.Joel ANASMO, 36.Takuya OKAMOTO
(Two to be omitted)
Ins: 7.Nicholas PENNINGTON, 21.Luke AMOS, 26.Khoa NGO
Outs: 23.Patrick WOOD
Unavailable 5.Lachie BARR (injured), 9.David WILLIAMS (injured), 15.Zach LISOLAJSKI (international duty), 16.Adam BUGARIJA (international duty), 19.Josh RISDON, (injured), 23.Patrick WOOD (ineligible under terms of loan agreement), 24.Andriano LEBIB (injured), 25.Jaylan PEARMAN (international duty)
Sydney FC squad: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 4. Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS, 5. Alex GRANT, 6. Corey HOLLMAN, 7. Adrian SEGECIC, 8. Anas OUAHIM, 9. Patryk KLIMALA, 10. Joe LOLLEY, 11. Douglas COSTA, 12. Harrison DEVENISH-MEARES (GK), 15. Leo SENA, 16. Joel KING, 17. Anthony CACERES, 21. Zac DE JESUS, 23. Rhyan GRANT (C), 24. Wataru KAMIJO, 25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI, 29. Joe LACEY, 36. Mathias MACALLISTER, 37. Will KENNEDY
(Two to be omitted)
Ins: 5. Alex GRANT (new signing), 29. Joe LACEY (promoted), 36. Mathias MACALLISTER (promoted)
Outs: 42. Kyle SHAW (hamstring)
Unavailable: 3. Aaron GURD (collarbone), 31. Jaushua SOTIRIO (calf), 41. Alex POPOVIC (groin)
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