City’s focus firmly remains on improvement ahead of the team’s final match of the Ninja A-League regular season on Friday, according to Head Coach, Michael Matricciani.
Three points against Perth Glory in Western Australia will see City lift the Premiers Plate, but despite the occasion, City’s focus remains on getting stronger as the campaign progresses.
Read the Head Coach’s pre-match thoughts ahead of his side’s trip to Perth below…
FOCUSED ON THE TASK AT HAND…
“We’ve put ourselves in this position that, you know, if we win, we’ll be Premiers. It’s definitely not a message that we’re talking about, that it’s in our own hands. For me, as I’ve mentioned so many times throughout the course of the year, we’re focusing on the things that we felt we can do better from the Newcastle match and there was definitely a few areas that we think we can improve on.
“We’ve been working on the last couple of days, the strengths of Perth and how we can nullify them. So, the message is more on how we continue to improve. And hopefully the outcome will take care of itself.”
ON CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT…
“Yes, this is an important match. We have a chance to win a trophy, but we obviously have a big final series and a Champions League campaign as well, so how we keep improving is the main objective here.
“I think everyone’s been quite upbeat. There hasn’t been a huge difference. Today’s training was excellent. I think the energy’s really high, and I’m sure they’re feeling it internally, but come Friday, we will be ready.”
ON PERTH GLORY…
“I think, they gave us a good wakeup call in Round 1. They were 2-0 up and pressed us really well. I think they’re a team that can press well… I think they play some really good build up as well, so they’re all things that we’re aware of.
“I think it’s chalk and cheese from where we started [Round 1 v Perth] to now. I think the consistency in all the main moments of the game, I think the understanding of what we’re looking to do in all those moments is pretty clear. And we’ve been able to add a lot of different concepts on top of all those we had in the beginning.
“I think come the back end of the season, especially the last 8 or 9 games, I think we’re definitely controlling and managing the game a lot better than we did in the first part of the season.”
