3 minute read

Perth Glory are depleted and struggling but Wellington Phoenix are wary of a potential upset and blow to their A-League Men finals hopes.

Wellington will be wary of a depleted Perth Glory team that has nothing to lose when they play their final A-League Men game before returning to New Zealand.

Perth are winless in 12 and sit squarely at the bottom of the table after copping a 6-1 thrashing from Newcastle while Wellington's 4-1 win over Western United got their bid for finals back on track.

"These teams are probably harder to play against. Perth Glory have got nothing to lose," coach Ufuk Talay said.

"They're playing a lot of young players who have got a lot to gain if they want to stay at that club or even make a move somewhere else.

"With these games it's very important that we stay focused on the job at hand.

"We need to go out there and if we get three points, it's a massive boost for us coming back to New Zealand."

Left back James McGarry is available for selection, after missing two games through COVID-19.

Glory coach Ruben Zadkovich confirmed Adrian Sardinero had torn his ACL, while noting the tight schedule meant he couldn't dwell too long on the Newcastle loss.

"Here we are at Perth Glory with 13 of our 23 man roster unavailable, our captain out, our marquees out, our foreigners out, our leading goalscorer out, our record goalscorer at the club out," he said.

"When you add it all up, we're playing a game every three days.

"We've got seven games in (22) days and five of those seven are away from home with basically whatever's left from that first-grade squad that is fit and available and 11 or 12 of my youth team.

"If you take all of that into the context of the situation we're in, then you soon realise there's not much point in dwelling on that result the other night."

The game, which will be played at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, is set to be goalkeeper Liam Reddy's 400th national league match.