The last seven days have been particularly difficult for Perth Glory. They suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat to a rampant Sydney FC, had their coach Alex Epakis, three players and two other members of the coaching staff test positive to COVID, and lost two of their most potent attacking weapons to injury with Susan Phonsongkham and Cyera Hintzen both out for a couple of weeks.
This mini-crisis has forced the club to ask for additional player resources and ex-Matilda Leena Khamis joined the squad this week on a short-term injury replacement contract.
The team travel to Newcastle for today’s game against the Jets knowing they can ill afford to drop any more points as they attempt to get into the top four.
Coach Alex Epakis had this to say about the situation in a pre-match press briefing on Friday before he tested positive to COVID:
“We’re middle of the table four or five games in and we’re a win out of being in the top four, and I think there’s definitely belief (within the squad). We’re happy where we’re at, we’re still within touching distance of where we want to be and we haven’t had the opportunity to put our strongest 11 out consistently.”
Epakis also acknowledged that the team has been guilty of inviting too much pressure on themselves and is hoping to see an improvement in this area on Sunday.
“We’ve conceded 45 corners and we’re just not happy that we’ve conceded so many in the first place and that puts pressure on us. A lot of that comes down to decision making under pressure and where we’re looking to clear the ball and how we’re clearing the ball, and that’s not the back four only, that’s the whole team. So we feel that if we don’t give the opportunity for the opposition to have all the set pieces then we defend less and so there are less chances of conceding from set-pieces.”
In terms of their opponents on Sunday he had this to say:
“They’re a really aggressive strong team, they’ve been together for a number of seasons which allows for more cohesion and more understanding. We know that we have to match up in the physical side (but) I think from a football point of view we can certainly match it with them.”
The signing of Khamis is an acknowledgement from the club that they are struggling with injuries and Covid. The veteran striker will certainly bring some much-needed physicality as well as game sense to a side that is struggling in the final third.
Club skipper Natasha Rigby felt that the squad still has the quality and depth to overcome these difficulties.
“We have amazing depth in our squad this year, so it shouldn’t affect us too badly. We really want to focus on attack and playing forward football; that’s been our aim from the start” she said.
The result on Sunday will be crucial to both teams, as they are both fighting for a spot in the top four, so this should be a highly competitive and keenly fought game.
The head to head for Glory against Newcastle is P21 W9 D6 L6, and the last time the two teams met in Newcastle, Glory came away with a 4-2 win.
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