Perth Glory Women are back in action on Sunday away to Adelaide United following a disappointing 3-1 loss to Melbourne Victory last weekend.
The match will be broadcast live on Fox Sports as the featured W-League match of the round, and head coach Bobby Despotovski is confident his team will rise to the occasion this weekend.
“We should expect the girls to put in a similar performance to the Brisbane match. That’s the least we as a coaching staff and the viewers should expect and the players’ friends expect it as well. We collectively under-delivered last week, so we’re going to improve that and rectify that for our friends, families and most of all ourselves,” said Despotovski.
Last time Glory Women featured on television they captured the three points with a 2-nil win against the Roar, capped off with Vanessa DiBernardo’s wonder strike in the 88th minute.
While DiBernardo is certainly considered one of the danger-women for Perth, former Glory attacker Rosie Sutton will be expected to be a main influence on the Adelaide attack.
“We’re looking to stop deliveries into the danger areas that Sutton can exploit. If that is breached, we’re relying on one-on-ones against Sutton on whichever side she’s on. But the important thing is to defend as a team and prevent those one-on-ones.”
Rosie Sutton isn’t the only former Glory player facing the club this weekend. Adelaide head coach Jamie Harnwell will be facing his former club for the first time since winning the premiers plate as team’s coach last season. Despotovski and Harnwell were teammates with Perth Glory for several seasons, but Despotosvki doesn’t believe any of the attention should be on the two former teammates.
“It’s nothing to do with us coaches, all to do with the teams. We’re both desperate for three points. They sit one point above us so we want to go ahead of them and push for a finals berth. Nothing to do with Jamie or myself.”
With the two teams separated by just one point on the ladder, a win would go a big way to pushing Glory back into the top four.
“Everyone’s really close still. We’ve got Adelaide this week and Sydney next week, who are just above us, so if we get these two wins it will put us in a good position,” said Perth captain Kim Carroll.
With a win, Glory could push as high as third place on Sunday.
The match will be broadcast LIVE on Fox Sports 505 kicking off at 1.30pm AWST.
