Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert will stick with team that beat Newcastle Jets 3-0 last week for tonight's match with Perth Glory at NIB Stadium. Photo / Getty Images.
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert will stick with team that beat Newcastle Jets 3-0 last week for tonight's match with Perth Glory at NIB Stadium. Photo / Getty Images.
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert will stick with team that beat Newcastle Jets 3-0 last week for tonight's match with Perth Glory at NIB Stadium.
Belgian international striker Stein Huysegems has fully recovered from the ankle injury that kept him out of the Jets game but will start on thebench.
"Stein is fine and has come through the last three days training without a problem," Herbert said. "We will ease him back into it and coming off the bench means he will go whatever distance we need.
"Those who played last week did a great job and I'm confident they will do the same again here."
It means Herbert will stick with the same 4-3-3 formation he used against Newcastle, which was a deviation from the 4-1-3-2 employed for the opening games of the season. Vince Lia will be pressed into action again alongside Manny Muscat and Alex Smith, with Jeremy Brockie, Paul Ifill and Louis Fenton up front.
The only concern for Herbert is Benji Totori who caused chaos among the Jets defence when he went on as a substitute in Newcastle. Totori rolled an ankle during training on Thursday and sat out yesterday's session at the match venue.
"We will give Benji every chance but it doesn't look promising at the moment," Herbert said.
The Phoenix will need to be at their best against a Perth Glory side that has started the A-League campaign well before surprisingly being beaten 1-0 by Western Sydney last week.
Wellington Phoenix: Mark Paston, Leo Bertos, Andrew Durante, Ben Sigmund, Tony Lochhead, Manny Muscat, Vince Lia, Alex Smith, Louis Fenton, Paul Ifill, Jeremy Brockie. Substitutes (from): Tyler Boyd, Ricardo Clarke, Glen Moss, Benji Totori.
