Football
Adrian Warren 4y

Heat on Wanderers heading to hot Perth

The heat will be on slumping A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers in more than one way when they take on a resurgent Perth Glory.

Wanderers won their first three games but have lost their last four and are winless in five, heading into Saturday's clash with Perth at HBF Stadium.

Glory trailed Wanderers by five points after four rounds, but are just one behind after last week's away win at Melbourne City and will jump over them with a win.

Outspoken Wanderers coach Markus Babbel has incurred the wrath of the FFA on a couple of occasions for some of his post-match comments and admitted the pressure is on him and his team.

"The boys the last few weeks are doing everything well in training but the results are not there," Babbel said.

"Now we have to put our chest out and head up and believe that we are a good side, that we can beat every team in this competition."

Saturday's match is the third away game in a row for Western Sydney and another long journey following last week's flight to Wellington.

"The temperature in Perth will be 40 degrees. It will be hot for us and with the time difference and long flight it will be hard on the legs," Babbel said.

"We are professionals and have to handle this and we will handle this."

Perth coach Tony Popovic said his team should embrace the heat and wasn't concerned about whether the kick-off could be delayed or the match postponed.

"That's out of our hands, we'll go into the game preparing to play and if the game gets delayed, they are things we can't control due to the weather," Popovic said.

"It's a night kick-off so that should help."

Glory haven't won in three home games this season, but Popovic was looking forward to successive fixtures at HBF Park after five away matches in their first eight fixtures.

Perth are still to register successive wins and he said the challenge facing his club was to build on last week's victory and develop some consistency.

"We want to be better than last week; that's the focus this week," Popovic said

"We all want momentum but it's something easier to speak about (than do)."

STATS THAT MATTER:

*Perth are undefeated in their last five A-League games against Western Sydney who haven't won at HBF Park in eight matches since February 2014.

*Wanderers have conceded just two first-half goals this A-League campaign, fewer than any other team in the competition, but have lost six of their last seven away games.

*Glory have lost their last two A-League games at HBF Park; the last time they lost more in succession there was a three-game stretch from January to February 2011.

*Stats supplied by Opta

^ Back to Top ^