Glory ALM Head Coach Adam Griffiths will not be dwelling on the recent or more distant past in the run-up to Friday’s Round 12 showdown with Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park (kick-off at 4:35pm WST, watch on Paramount+).
The men in purple will be out to avenge two pre-season and one A-League defeat at the hands of the navy-and-whites in the last three months by making it back-to-back wins in Victoria following Sunday’s impressive display against reigning Champions Melbourne City.
But none of those previous games, against either Victory or City, will feature prominently in Griffiths’ pre-match thinking.
“The plan will be for a complete reset,” he said.
“The previous moment has been removed.
“Victory are an improved team since the start of the season, as their form has indicated, but we’re a completely different side from those previous games.
“We’ve grown a lot, we have a lot of different attributes now and we’re still building on those areas of our game.
“It’s two teams that are now in different positions and mental states, so it’s going to be a very good game.”
The hosts come into the game off the back of three straight wins, including a 5-1 demolition of Wellington Phoenix on Monday evening and Griffiths is well aware of the quality in their ranks.
“They’re a very strong team that should be near the top because of the squad depth that they have,” he said.
“You only have to look at their bench and I don’t have to rattle off the exceptional players that they have.
“Those players would most likely start in any other team.
“But any team can beat any team and we’re very excited about the challenge.
“We’ll be giving everything to get the three points.”
The Head Coach went on to confirm that no major injuries were sustained by his charges during the win over Melbourne City before providing updates on Adam Taggart, Rhys Bozinovski, Luke Amos and Josh Risdon.
Taggart and Bozinovski both returned from injury against City, while Risdon missed that game through suspension and Amos is yet to feature this term.
“We’ll see how they [Taggart and Bozinovski] train this week and if their performances are good in training, they’ll be like everyone else and up for selection,” he said.
“Amos is fitter, but he needs to get much fitter again and the the squad is very competitive.
“His performances in training will determine how close he gets to the squad and the starting team.
“Josh Risdon didn’t travel as we knew he would miss the first game due to suspension… and unless someone is significantly injured, he won’t feature on Friday.”
Victory’s recent resurgence has left them sitting one point and two places above Glory in sixth and after going four straight games without finding the net, they have now scored eight in their last three.
Greek forward Nikos Vergos has led that goalscoring charge, finding the target five times to share the lead in the race for the Golden Boot, while former Glory midfielder Keegan Jelacic has chipped in with three.
The rest of Victory’s ex-Glory contingent have also featured prominently, with Jason Davdison and Josh Rawlins regular starters at the back and Jack Duncan keeping four clean sheets in goal.
Friday will mark the 19th meeting between the two sides at AAMI Park and Glory will be targeting a first away win over Victory since December 2021.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 Season Round 11
Melbourne Victory v Perth Glory
AAMI Park
Friday 2 January 2025
Kick-off: 4:35pm WST (7:35pm Local Time)
#ONEGlory