Perth Glory FC will be hoping to take their strong home form in the Foxtel National Youth League on the road when they take on Central Coast Mariners in Tuggerah at 11am local time on Saturday morning.
After a dominant performance and convincing 3-0 win against Newcastle Jets last week at the Ashfield Sports Complex, Head of Youth Development John Gibson will be looking once again for more improvement from the whole group.
“The highlight of last week’s performance was the clean sheet, and our pressure on the ball and our defending across the park. The team demonstrated a great attitude and work ethic and we are looking for them to build on that positive performance this week against the Mariners.”
The Youth team will be without a number of the younger Hyundai A-League squad members for this weekend’s clash against the Mariners, with three players promoted to the first team squad, which faces a busy schedule having to play in Melbourne in the Westfield FFA Cup semi-final on Tuesday night . Brandon O’Neill, who was a standout in the middle of the park last week and scored the first goal against the Jets is a notable promotion as is Cameron Edwards.
A welcome sight for Glory fans to the Youth Team is the inclusion of Hyundai A-League striker Chris Harold, who is set to play his first competitive game of the season after returning from injury. Also included in the team is goalkeeper Jack Duncan and defender Riley Woodcock. Both will join up with the Australian Olympic Team on Monday for a four nation’s tournament in China.
Glory’s young striker Joe Knowles will be looking to increase his goal tally further against a Central Coast team that has yet to register a win in this year’s competition. Knowles already sits comfortable as the Foxtel National Youth League’s top scorer with his brace against Newcastle last week, making it five goals in three games for the former ECU Joondalup marksmen.
Glory will also be without Mitch Oxborrow for the trip to Tuggerah, who is suspended after receiving two yellow cards in last week’s win. Rocco Pizzata and Matt Ntoumenopoulos, who were both part of Glory’s National Premier League side during 2014 plus ex-Armadale SC player, Nathan Costello, have been promoted to the squad for the game.
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Perth Glory Youth: GK Jack DUNCAN, 2 Jacob COLLARD (c), 3 Nathan COSTELLO, 4 Rocco PIZZATA, 5 Calvin WHITNEY, 6 Jordan FRANKEN, 7 Ali GHOLAMI, 8 Jack IREDALE, 9 Joe KNOWLES, 10 Chris HAROLD, 11 Borbor SAM, 12 Slobodan VULIN, 13 Riley WOODCOCK, 14 Matthew NTOUMENOPOULOS, 15 Todd NORRIS
