Western rack up wins ahead of Mars clash

WESTERN United have added further milestones to their resurgent 2021-22 A-League Men campaign after downing Perth Glory 2-0 in Launceston on Sunday evening.

With two wins in five days, coach John Aloisi believes they have what it takes to keep their momentum going.

Getting the job done in Tassie thanks to goals from Aleksandar Prijovic and Dylan Pierias, United’s win at UTAS Stadium extended their club record-setting unbeaten run to seven games – their last loss coming against Wellington on 21 January.

Aloisi’s side has also now surpassed their win total from the 2020-21 campaign with nine in just 14 games and their 29 points are one greater than the total they achieved in 26 games last season.

And while Sunday’s game kick-started a series of fixtures that will see them head to Ballarat and then crisscross the East coast for the remainder of the season in a similar manner to the run that instituted their collapse in 2021, Alosi believes his squad won’t falter this time around.

“We’ve spoken about certain things that they didn’t do last season,” he said.

“Talking about looking for excuses when things didn’t go so well. Looking for excuses about ‘we haven’t got a home, we’re playing in four different stadiums’.

“I was very quick to mention that to the players at the beginning of the season.

“We know what we’ve got, we know where we’re headed. Let’s enjoy the journey and enjoy whatever’s put in front of us and every obstacle that’s in front of us and let’s adapt.”

Against a side that has been drained by injuries and a life on the road forced by Western Australia’s hard border, United looked as comfortable as you’d expect from the league’s most miserly defence.

Bruno Fornaroli’s 11th-minute miss was a rare moment of Glory penetration in a first-half dominated by United chances, and their 37th-minute goal from Prijovic, ably fed from an unlikely figure in Nikolai Topor-Stanley, reflective of the balance of play.

Just over 10 minutes into the second half, Pierias popped up to score a goal he had been threatening all evening when he met a well-placed cross in from the left from left-back Ben Garruccio.

No team in the ALM has been better at keeping clean sheets than Aloisi’s this season and while Glory had the better of play as they pushed hard for a response, they proved unsuccessful.

Western United will look to keep the momentum going when they host the Newcastle Jets next Saturday at Mars Stadium.

 

– BY JOEY LYNCH/ AAP