Glory Head Coach Kenny Lowe is hoping that his side can take the positives from last week’s strong second-half showing against Western Sydney into Sunday’s Round 2 clash with Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Two goals late in the first half put the visitors on the back foot at Spotless Stadium, but they responded well after the break, twice striking the woodwork through Adam Taggart and eventually halving the deficit via a Brendan Hamill own-goal.
Lowe was heartened by that rally and felt that the game stats backed up his own view of the performance.
“We had Wanderers under real pressure for the last 30 minutes or so,” he said, “and not many sides do that to them, especially at their place.
“In the end, we had the second-most shots of any side in the A-League last weekend, plus the second-most passes completed and the three players with the most touches in the box in [Diego] Castro, [Andy] Keogh and Taggart.
“We’ll take those plus points into Sunday and hopefully pick up a result over there.”
Lowe went on to hint that he may tinker with his starting side, with more options now available to him following the arrival earlier in the week of Mitch Mallia and Jeremy Walker on injury replacement contracts.
“The two new lads may well feature in the squad,” he said, “and there’s a possibility that Andreu could start after he did well off the bench last week.
“We know that the Jets are a good side as they showed with their big win against the Mariners last weekend.
“They recruited well in the off-season, have a very lively front four that we’ll need to be aware of and will obviously be full of confidence after that fantastic start.
“But we’ll back ourselves like we always do against every team that we play.”
Last season’s three meetings between the two sides produced a total of 12 goals and honours were evenly split with one win, one defeat and a draw apiece.
Historically, however, Glory have dominated this fixture, winning on ten of our previous 18 visits to McDonald Jones Stadium, comfortably the club’s best record at any away Hyundai A-League venue.
In terms of familiar faces in the home ranks, meanwhile, Jack Duncan is likely to start in goal and the defence will be marshalled by 2008 MGP winner, Nikolai Topor-Stanley.
Match Details:
Sunday, 15 October 2017
Newcastle Jets v Perth Glory
McDonald Jones Stadium
Kick-Off: 5:00pm (Local); 2:00pm (WST)
Referee: Shaun Evans
Assistant Referee 1: Ryan Gallagher
Assistant Referee 2: James Cleal
Fourth Official: Ben Abraham
Video Assistant Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 501 from 4:30pm (AEDT) and Sky Sport 1 (New Zealand)
Radio Broadcast: myfootballnation.com (6PR & 2SM Super Radio), 1233 ABC Newcastle, ABC Radio Perth, ABC Radio WA, Grandstand Digital, Online & via the ABC Listen App – A-league Live.
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #NEWvPER
Newcastle Jets Squad: 1.Jack DUNCAN (gk), 3.Jason HOFFMAN, 4.Nigel BOOGAARD (c), 5.Ben KANTAROVSKI, 6.Steven UGARKOVIC, 7.Dimitri PETRATOS, 8.Ronald VARGAS, 9.Roy O’DONOVAN, 10.Wayne BROWN, 13.Ivan VUJICA, 15.Andrew NABBOUT, 16.Nick COWBURN, 17.Daniel GEORGIEVSKI, 19.Kosta PETRATOS, 20.Glen MOSS (gk), 22.Lachlan JACKSON, 24.Joe CHAMPNESS, 44.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 3.Jason HOFFMAN (return from injury), 19.Kosta PETRATOS (promoted)
Outs: nil
Unavailable: nil
Perth Glory Squad: 2.Alex GRANT, 4.Shane LOWRY, 5.Jacob POSCOLIERO, 8.Xavi TORRES, 9.Andy KEOGH (c), 11.Mitch MALLIA, 13 Nick FEELY (gk), 14.Chris HAROLD, 15.Brandon WILSON, 16.Joseph MILLS, 17.Diego CASTRO, 18.Andreu GUERAO, 19.Joe KNOWLES, 20.Jake BRIMMER, 22.Adam TAGGART, 23.Scott NEVILLE, 29.Jeremy WALKER, 33.Liam REDDY (gk)
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 11.Mitch MALLIA (injury replacement player), 29.Jeremy WALKER, (injury replacement player)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 6.Mitch NICHOLS (suspended – 2 weeks), 25.Daniel STYNES (hamstring 9-12 weeks), 7.Joel CHIANESE (collar bone – 9-12 weeks), 3.Marc WARREN (ankle 9-12 weeks)
#CREATEDESTINY
