Melbourne Victory will be looking for their fourth win in five matches when they host Perth Glory at AAMI Park tonight. We’ll have live scores from 7.30 pm AEDT.
Perth’s 1-1 draw at home to Wellington Phoenix was certainly an improvement on their 1-0 loss to Western Sydney the week earlier, but something still isn’t clicking in the west.
They’ve won only once in their past five and are struggling to hit the net on a regular basis, though the timely return of Shane Smeltz should at least partially rectify the problem.
Things couldn’t be going better at the Victory, with 13 points from a possible 15 lifting Ange Postecoglou’s side into third place on the A-League table.
Recent form will be somewhat negated in this one, with both sides missing key players selected for Socceroos duty.
Archie Thompson and Mark Milligan will both miss for the home side, while the Glory will be without Scott Jamieson and Michael Thwaite and will also be without the services of suspended captain Jacob Burns.
Perth’s recent form dip has coincided with the absence of Burns due to injury and their loss is compounded by the return of Victory playmaker Marcos Flores, who returns from his own one-match ban.
If Perth is to improve its abysmal away record – they’ve managed only one point away from nib Stadium this season – they must find a way to overcome the loss of Burns.
But if Ian Ferguson is unable to plug the gap expect the likes of Flores and Marco Rojas to run riot in the attacking third, which will most likely lead to the home side collecting all three points.
TC
Guest
The key thing to come out of tonight's game: Melbourne had a clean sheet in consecutive games for the first time in 37 matches (almost two years). That's the sort of thing the coaching staff are going to be able to tick off as a major milestone, as a clear indicator of the direction the team is heading in. It cannot be overstated. You will get no clearer illustration of where the team is at compared to a year ago. Related to that - most of us thought to ourselves about six weeks ago: why are they going after another keeper? That's crazy! Well, now we know. Shore up the back - the rest follows. TC
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Sigh. Very hard to win games when you do not score goals and we have been very limited in front of goal this year.
Ben
Guest
Very poor play by glory