Melbourne Victory is looking to return to winning ways when it visits Perth Glory in the Westfield W-League on Saturday.
Summary
Victory played out a 0-0 draw with Brisbane Roar in Round 6 as both teams struggled to find a final pass at Epping Stadium.
Casey Dumont kept her first clean sheet of the season as Victory, playing with a back three, was unable to find a breakthrough.
The result meant Victory managed to take four points from a possible six against Brisbane this campaign.
It makes the trip to Dorrien Gardens seeking a first win in four games to kick-start its premiership defence.
Just over two weeks after playing her 50th competitive game for Victory, captain Natasha Dowie is set to reach a half-century of appearances for the club in the Westfield W-League.
Victory has won two of its past three games against Perth, which has one point from five matches this season.
Head coach Jeff Hopkins’ pre-match thoughts
on preparation…
“Everyone came out of the (Brisbane) game really well and we had a couple of good sessions on Monday and Tuesday so it’s good being able to prepare again for games. The Roar game was the first game we’d really had a chance to prepare for properly and obviously this one as well. Hopefully it’ll make a change and make the difference for us, being that little bit better prepared on the field so we’re looking forward to the game.”
on formation and focus…
“They (Perth) play a little bit different so I don’t know whether we’ll stick to how we played, we may even go back to the way we’ve been playing before but with more of a focus on getting the ball forward and really trying to be positive, get more bodies ahead of the ball and look to have a bit more of a focus on creating goal-scoring opportunities and scoring goals.”
on kick-starting season…
“We’re not looking at this as an easy game – we’ve got to travel, it’s a long journey and obviously they (Perth) have not had the best of starts, but their performances have been pretty good, they’ve had a tough couple of last games as well so they look like they’ve got a few more players into their squad now. It’s going to be a really tough proposition for us but we know that we’ve got to start getting points on the board so we’re going there pretty determined, but understanding that we’ve still got a tough opponent up against us.”
Last time
Westfield W-League 2018/19 Semi Final
Melbourne Victory 2-4 Perth Glory (aet)
Sunday, February 10, 2019
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Perth overcame Victory in a thrilling Semi Final last season.
Sam Kerr cancelled out Christine Nairn’s opener before Rachel Hill gave Perth an 86th-minute lead.
While Grace Maher scored a dramatic equaliser for Victory to force extra-time, Kerr struck twice to seal Perth’s win as Sam Johnson was sent off.
As it stands
Match details
Perth Glory v Melbourne Victory
Dorrien Gardens, Perth
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Kick-off: 10.15pm AEDT
