Perth Glory will put their new-look A-League squad to the test on Saturday night when they take on Scottish giants Celtic at nib Stadium.
The Glory have recruited heavily following last season’s disappointing campaign, with stars such as former Manchester United midfielder Liam Miller, New Zealand international Shane Smeltz, former Adelaide skipper Travis Dodd, Dutch defender Bas van den Brink and goalkeeper Danny Vukovic arriving at the club.
Vukovic said the squad is still settling in but hopes to put in a good showing against Celtic, who suffered a 1-0 defeat last Saturday to Central Coast.
“We’ve been working hard the last nine weeks with our pre-season and it’s all pretty much for this game, so it will be a good test for us to see where we’re at and, hopefully, we’ll get a good result,” Vukovic said on Monday.
“We’ve still got a couple of months before the start of the season.
“There’s still a few things that we need to work on and, obviously, more than half the team’s new to this club so we need to work on things and now play a lot of games to gel as well as possible.
“They (Miller and van den Brink) have only been with us for a couple of sessions but, from what we can tell, they look like very good players and I think they’re going to be very good for us.
“I think the club’s recruited very well and a lot of experience there, so we’re confident that we’ll do well this year and anything less than finals football, I think, will be a disappointing year for us.”
Celtic manager Neil Lennon is hopeful Scottish international midfielder Kris Commons and defenders Charlie Mulgrew and Thomas Rogne will be fit to take on the Glory.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Mathew Leckie played a pivotal part in Melbourne City claiming an 8-nil win; playing a role in several of his team's goals.
The loser of the Sydney Derby will be under immense pressure entering the final three matches of the season.
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
Sydney moved into fourth with their point but Glory's finals hopes are now officially extinguished.
Anthony Caceres is a player with immense talent and has a fantastic work rate, broke the deadlock against the Mariners in the 74th minute.
The Wanderers coach admits he has stuff going on in his personal life, and insists he has full support of playing group.
