By the Palm Trees – Perth Glory vs Central Coast Mariners
This round our Central Coast Mariners travel to Perth to take on the top of the table Glory. Their form in recent times has been excellent so this presents one of the toughest road trips in the A-League right now. There is plenty going on around the Glory at the moment with talk of them exceeding the salary cap dominating recent press. This week they went down to Adelaide United in their most recent encounter – the inaugural FFA Cup Final – so this could be a good time for our boys to take them on.
Last weekend we travelled to Auckland to play Wellington Phoenix and brought home a hard earned point. Having been largely outplayed the boys showed the renowned Mariners character to keep the Phoenix from taking all three. Earlier in the season at Central Coast Stadium our team performed well without luck against the Glory and the opposition were able to leave Gosford with a one nil win and the points. While the Mariners have a reasonable record in Perth over the years it’s hard to see a way to be too confident we can return the favour and take the points from them in their backyard.
Good news from last weekend was the performances of Matt Simon (again) who made an excellent return from injury to take his chance and score our only goal of the game. Richard Vernes is also showing some promise. I’ve been a little critical of our imports in recent times, and I continue to have some concerns, but there is no doubt that in the last couple of matches Vernes has shown some welcome signs of improvement.
Perth Glory have a number of quality players in their squad but the most noticeable improvement this year has been in terms of their finishing. I’d have to say their marquee striker Andy Keogh has been super impressive. Not since the arrival of Besart Berisha have I seen an import striker provide the combination of quality, effort and resilience required. There have been some who have shown glimpses of finishing brilliance but few who have combined that with toughness and hard work like Keogh. The only challenge for the Glory right now is the absence of Mitch Nichols through injury.
On the Central Coast the ‘Stand Up for the Mariners’ campaign continues to gain momentum as Coasties work together to remind the owner our club can be a success staying right here playing all games on the coast. Promotional signage is appearing in all sorts of locations from highway overhead bridges to roadsides to local businesses as we prepare for the home match against Brisbane on the 27th December. Aside from a commuter area, the Central Coast is also a tourist ‘Mecca’ so hopefully enough word gets around for plenty of holiday makers to get along to the match after Christmas. For the first time (ever?) the Mariners will not host a fixture on New Year’s Eve. No one around here is happy about it because heading off to watch the Mariners game followed by waterfront fireworks and New Year celebrations has become a way of life among fans up here. This makes it all the more important for people to take advantage by getting along to this post-christmas game to soak up the atmosphere and holiday fun.
Can the Mariners beat the Glory? Yes, I think they can but it would certainly go against the form guide. After Perth missed their opportunity in the FFA cup I think they will be hungry to redeem themselves and this will be the biggest difficulty for the Mariners.
My prediction – Glory by 1
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