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Melbourne Victory travel west to take on Perth Glory in their Round 23 fixture at NIB Stadium on Saturday night. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 9:30pm AEDT.
Perth Glory come into this fixture on a winless drought and sit snuggly last at the foot of the A-League table; it is looking certain now that they won’t be playing finals football this year.
The Glory will have to contend this match without the likes of Shane Smeltz who is out for a couple of weeks with a groin injury, but they welcome back Ryan Edwards and Riley Woodcock who have both been promoted to the starting squad.
In their last eight fixtures, Kenny Lowe’s boys have conceded 14 goals while and only scoring six of their own.
It’s a simple equation really, Perth need to find a way to hit the scoreboard if they are going to have any chance in this match.
The Victory may be further up the table, but they are not devoid of issues.
The fact of the matter is whenever Victory are playing, supporters are often left wondering what Victory side will come out to play – inconsistency has time and again bogged their season.
Following a sensational 3-1 victory last Friday over the Mariners, they only managed a 2-2 draw mid-week in the Asian Champions League.
This pattern of brilliant one week to average the next, is a continuing and worrying pattern.
However, the Victory do welcome some talent into their squad this week with Traore, Ansell, Milligan and Rogic all back from injury, suspension and international duty respectively.
Adrien Leijer is still out with facial injuries, along with Pain and Murnane who are both omitted.
The key to Melbourne returning from Perth with all three points will be the performance of their brilliant Brazilian, Gui Finkler.
He is not only the game breaker, but he is quite fresh, determined, and eager to prove to Muscat he is an essential cog in the Victory lineup.
This game should be a tight one; 2-1 to the Victory.
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