A league - Round 6 - Wellington vs Perth (Sun 30 Sep - 5pm)

[Beejayville]

Wellington Phoenix v Perth Glory Date: Sunday September 30 Kick-off (local time): 5.00pm Venue: Westpac Stadium Radio coverage: The Radio Network 1035AM (Wellington), 6PR 882AM, SportFM 90.5FM (both Perth) Head-to-head First league meeting Previous meeting Never met Past five results Wellington: Draw - Loss - Loss - Win - Draw Perth: Draw - Draw - Draw - Loss - Loss Often discussed as one of the longest road trips in world football, the Glory might have been aided by staying in New South Wales after Sunday's loss to the Central Coast Mariners but the reduced trip is made all the more daunting by the partisan atmosphere being created inside Westpac Stadium this season. Wellington Phoenix supporters might still be awaiting their maiden Hyundai A-League victory at home after drawing with grand final pair Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United and losing narrowly to the Jets. But attendances at Westpac are already some four-times larger than the now-defunct Knights' average crowds last season and lay ahead of Newcastle, Adelaide, the Mariners and Perth in the current pecking order. Phoenix manager Ricki Herbert has the luxury of being able to name an unchanged side for the fourth consecutive week although whether he can resist disrupting recent continuity to squeeze Qantas Socceroos winger Ahmad Elrich into the side remains to be seen. Glory counterpart Ron Smith is still waiting for his first win at any venue this season but bottom-placed Perth has taken a point away from Telstra Dome already this season and gave a strong account of itself in Gosford last weekend. Targetman Mate Dragicevic came a whisker away from opening his Glory goalscoring ledger when he hit the crossbar with a powerful header with the Croatian in contention for a starting recall alongside James Robinson after Smith omitted Jamie Harnwell from his travelling party. The pressure continues to build on Dragicevic with Perth having not scored away from Members Equity Stadium in over 11 hours of play, an away drought some 170 minutes longer than the barren spell the Knights endured in 2005/06. Skipper Simon Colosimo didn't reappear after the break in last week's 1-0 loss to the Mariners after succumbing to hamstring soreness but keeps his place with Billy Celeski given a reprieve and New Zealand international Leo Bertos also recalled to face his hometown club. Phoenix right-back Jeremy Christie will also be meeting his former club for the first time.

[Beejayville]

Re: A league - Round 6 - Wellington vs Perth (Sun 30 Sep - 5pm) Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Mark PASTON (gk), 2.Jeremy CHRISTIE, 3.Tony LOCHHEAD, 4.CLEBERSON, 5.Karl DODD, 6.Tim BROWN, 7.Ross ALOISI (captain), 8.Vaughan COVENY, 9.Shane SMELTZ, 10.Michael FERRANTE, 11.DANIEL, 12.Richard JOHNSON, 13.Steven OLD, 14.Steven O’DOR, 15.George PALADINI, 20.Glen MOSS (gk), 21.Felipe CAMPOS, 22.Royce BROWNLIE. *three to be omitted In: Cleberson (promoted), Royce Brownlie (promoted), Tim Brown (return to fitness) Out: Nil Others Unavailable: Vince Lia (thigh – 1 week), Ahmad Elrich (new to squad) Perth Glory Squad: 50.Tommi TOMICH (gk), 2.Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 4.Simon COLOSIMO (Captain), 6.Dino DJULBIC, 9.Mate DRAGICEVIC, 10.Billy CELESKI, 12.Leo BERTOS, 13.Nikita RUKAVYTSYA, 14.Jamie COYNE, 15.Mitchell PRENTICE, 17.Jimmy DOWNEY, 19.Naum SEKULOVSKI, 21.James ROBINSON, 24.Jordan SIMPSON, 25. Tyler SIMPSON, 30.Tando VELAPHI. *one to be omitted In: Billy CELESKI (promoted), Leo BERTOS (return from injury), Jimmy DOWNEY (promoted). Out: Jamie HARNWELL (omitted), David MICEVSKI (omitted). Others Unavailable: David TARKA (hamstring – season), Jason PETKOVIC (leg – 5 weeks), Stan LAZARIDIS (Suspended – 8 weeks), Hayden FOXE (knee – 5 weeks) Impending stats, facts and trivia This is the second longest road trip in world domestic football at a distance of 5258 km between Perth and Wellington. The longest road trip in world domestic football exists in the Russian Premier League between Zenit St Petersburg and Luch-Energiya Vladivostok at a distance of 6536 km (Source: www.mapcrow.info). - Perth Glory will be hoping to score their first away goal in eight matches when they travel to Wellington. Leading into their Round 6 match, the Glory has not scored a goal in an away match since the 46th minute of their confrontation with Adelaide United in Round 11 of the Hyundai A-League 2006/07 season, meaning that leading into the Phoenix match, Perth Glory has not scored away in 674 minutes (over 11 hours of play). This is by far the longest period without scoring an away goal in the Hyundai A-League, with the next longest time being 504 minutes (set by New Zealand Knights in 2005/06).

[AJ]

Re: A league - Round 6 - Wellington vs Perth (Sun 30 Sep - 5pm) I think the 'nix will record there first home win. Brazilian AMC Felipe looks like a great player, bags of flair and pace, anything over even money will see my on the home team here

[AJ]

Re: A league - Round 6 - Wellington vs Perth (Sun 30 Sep - 5pm) Delighted with the win from a betting and personal point of view. 4-1 romp for the 'nix, I think they would have won anyway, but the sending off of the Perth player was the worst I've ever seen. One Wellington player barged into his team mate, and not knocked him over, and the ref sent off the poor fella from Perth that happened to be standing near by. He can't even appeal it as it was a 2nd yellow not a straight red. The league is suddenly a lot more interesting, for the first time we have 8 real teams, instead of 7 and the fasico that was the knights