A-League Men: Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths rues wastefulness in front of goal for second straight week

Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths has lamented his side’s wastefulness in front of goal and stressed an immediate need for improvement in the final third ahead of a tricky two-game stretch in Melbourne. But while Griffiths hoping the potential return of Adam Taggart from injury can arrest their goal-scoring woes, other injuries are starting to bite. It came as Griffiths confirmed starting goalkeeper Matt Sutton was expected to remain with the club with his injury-cover contract likely to be extended due to Cameron Cook’s knee problem. Glory dropped their second-consecutive game on Saturday night, a 1-0 loss to Adelaide at HBF Park which mirrored the previous week’s loss to Sydney FC. Like the Sky Blues before them, Adelaide took the lead early and dominated the early exchanges before Glory slowly established a foothold in the match. And just like the previous Saturday, Perth enjoyed the bulk of possession and territory in the second-half but failed to find the net, with centre-back Brian Kaltak missing a gilt-edged opportunity late. Griffiths called the loss “deja vu” and with a two-game road swing against Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory starting Sunday, said it was imperative they quickly found solutions in the final third. “It’s just not happening in that final third, so we have to regroup, look at how we improve and keep pushing towards improving in that area,” he said. “The best way to find solutions is when you get half chances or big chances like Brian at back post — we get a goal like that, and all of a sudden momentum shifts, they have to come out a little bit more, the pressure mounts and we keep pushing. “But at the moment, that’s not falling for us. We need to improve in that final third, with more quality coming back into the squad; when it does, the style of football, the pressure mounts and then the quality takes over. “You’re looking for players that want to step up and take that opportunity. Frustration starts to build, and we’ve got to try to remove that frustration, because frustration doesn’t help anyone. “We’ve got two big games in Melbourne, which is exciting. The next two games are going to be big challenges for us, but also games that we will be pushing to win.” The ‘quality’ Griffiths was largely referring to is the return of captain Taggart, who was subbed off last weekend but Griffiths was confident he could feature across their two games in Melbourne. Glory lost Rhys Bozinovski to a groin issue pre-game, but Griffiths said it was not serious and he made the call not to risk him. However, he did not expect either of Sebastian Despotovski and Jaiden Kucharski would feature, while winger Lachie Wales is not expected back until mid-January. Former Glory winger and fan favourite Stefan Colakovski has been training with the club for the past three months as he completes his rehabilitation from a torn ACL and is expected to sign for the club in January. Perth have a larger than average squad and while Griffiths said while Sutton’s stint out west would probably be extended, it was unlikely there would be wholesale additions to the team. “We’ve got a big enough squad to be honest, sometimes focusing on the players that we have, potentially some players moving on, and then making sure that this group starts to build and grow together, and we start to really hone in on how we continue to improve the team,” he said.