Perth Glory Captain Jacob Burns has declared the playing group’s full support of goalkeeper Tando Velaphi and backed him to quickly make amends after an unfortunate mistake from the young custodian allowed Central Coast to snatch all three points in the dying stages of their clash in Canberra on Friday night.
Perth Glory Captain Jacob Burns has declared the playing group-s full support of goalkeeper Tando Velaphi and backed him to quickly make amends after an unfortunate mistake from the young custodian allowed Central Coast to snatch all three points in the dying stages of their clash in Canberra on Friday night.
Velaphi, one of Australia-s rising stars between the posts, has been in outstanding form for Perth this season and Burns has no doubt the 22 year old will quickly rebound from last night-s disappointment.
“I spoke to him after the game and again today, he is obviously down but these things happen in football and Tando is a great keeper,” said Burns on arrival in Perth on Saturday afternoon.
“He has pulled us out of a lot of stuff many times before so it is just a situation where he-ll have to bounce back and I-m confident he will be able to do that.”
“We know the quality of Tando and we-re supporting him all the way. It-s now a matter of refocusing on the game against Gold Coast this week and getting the three points at home.”
Burns says football can sometimes teach harsh lessons and is confident the Olyroos shot stopper will learn from what has happened and use it to become an even more formidable force on the last line of defence.
“He is a great athlete and keeper and there have been plenty of occasions this season already that he has pulled out quality saves and he did that again last night against the Mariners.
“He is young and passionate player who-ll only get better and better and he-ll learn from that, no question.
“I can recall a time where I-ve given the ball away and a striker has pounced and scored from it and we-ve lost the game. I don-t think you-d find any player that hasn-t wanted to take back a pass or something else they-ve done on the pitch that resulted in the opposition gaining an advantage.
“It is all about limiting those mistakes and in Tando-s case you can easily point to a truck load of great saves and very few incidents he-d want to take back. Lets not forget how difficult it is on the last line of defence and we-re all very happy to have Tando there for the Glory.”
While Perth returned home empty handed for the third time in as many trips away from home this season, Burns believes the club-s performances on the road belies the lack of points on the board. He remains confident the club can swing the results back in their favour before too long.
“It is tough to come back with no points in a match where we all truly believed we deserved something from and the lads are disappointed about that.
“In my opinion the best way to approach a game is with a winning mentality and it doesn-t matter whether it is at home or away. The league is so tight and if you want to separate yourself then you have to put consecutive wins together.
“I guess above all it is disappointing when you walk from the field knowing you have created some good football and you don-t get the right result in the end.”
Perth twice hit the crossbar while another goal was ruled out after a late offside flag however Burns said the feeling amongst the playing group remained positive and it was only a matter of time before all the pieces would come together on the road.
“There is going to come a time when an opposition team is going to cop the full brunt of that and we-ll really open them up and make good on our chances.
“There is a bit of luck involved and when you get on a run sometimes the ball bounces your way, but at the minute it hasn-t happened but we-re going to keep on working hard towards that.
“The beauty of football is that there is always another game and we-ve really got to focus on Gold Coast and get the three points in front of our home fans on Sunday,” Burns said.
