Glory Head Coach Alex Epakis has hailed the mentality of his squad ahead of Friday’s return Liberty A-League clash with Brisbane Roar at Perry Park (kick-off at 4.45pm WST).
The women in purple scored two dramatic late goals to secure all three points in last weekend’s opening-round fixture against the Queenslanders, much to the delight of the majority of a 1000-strong crowd at Macedonia Park.
And Epakis felt that his charges’ strength of character played a key role in getting them over the line.
“The mentality of the team was really good considering we had a lot of baggage from last year,” he said.
“To come from behind in the last ten minutes and then see that result through, this group hasn’t done that before.
“So we’ve now got that in our pocket and that’s something we can add from a psychological point of view.”
Epakis readily admitted that there is plenty of room for improvement from his squad and he is expecting to see evidence of that on Friday evening when Glory face a Roar side out for revenge.
“The key thing is, we want to tidy up a few areas of our play,” he said.
“We identified a few things that we could have done better within our performance, mainly when we have the ball and how we’re attacking the opposition.
“So we’ve focused on that this week and have continued to use the momentum [from Saturday].
“They [Brisbane] had a pretty clear plan of how they wanted to play [on Saturday] and I’m sure they’re feeling a bit unjust about the result and will be looking to rectify it.”
While only a handful of Glory fans are likely to be in the stands at Perry Park on Friday evening, Epakis was quick to salute those who created such a superb atmosphere last Saturday.
“The Members and fans in particular made it a memorable night for all the players and I hope that they really enjoyed it,” he said.
“We certainly used their support to our advantage.
“It was a special atmosphere and going forward, I hope we can build on that.
“It’s shaping up to be a good start to the season and I hope we can have that same atmosphere at our next home game and all our home games this season.”
In terms of early team news, the Head Coach reported no fresh injury concerns emanating from Round One and confirmed that Danish international midfielder Mie Leth Jans has been added to the Glory squad for Friday’s game.
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