A-League Women: Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters says finals race not a focus ahead of Newcastle match

Perth Glory coach Stephen Peters says the A-League Women’s finals race is not on his mind as they approach the tail-end of the season, despite being a mathematical chance of the top six. Instead, Peters’ side will focus on earning reward for effort as they aim to add to their points tally and finish the year on a high note. Glory sit nine points off the top six in ninth with seven games remaining and will play the teams placed 12th, 11th, 10th, seventh and sixth in the run home. But Peters said he was “not really thinking about it” when asked if he felt Saturday’s clash with Newcastle in the Hunter Valley could impact their finals chances. The first-year Glory coach said his energy was focused on helping his team get rewards they had missed out on earlier this season after a number of battling performances. “There’s only been three games this year the effort wasn’t been where we want it to be,” Peters said. “Outside of that, we’ve had effort in every single contest and it’s about capitalising on that. “Both Brisbane and Wellington games in recent times, we’ve been really at it for 90 minutes, we’ve scored three and two goals respectively at home and they were, on both occassions good enough, to get us the three points.” After a week off, Peters said his Glory side were refreshed ahead of the trip to Newcastle as they aim to win their first away match of the season. Casey Dumont trained following the Achilles soreness which ruled her out of the win over Wellington, but Miranda Templeman is expected to retain her spot in goal. With Caitlin Doeglas having ended her short stint with the team, Peters bemoaned young Ella Lincoln succumbing to injury right as a spot opened up for her, while Ella Abdul-Massih has suffered a quad injury. However, the Glory have signed former youth international Hollie Palmer as an injury-replacement player, while Olivia Wood could feature against the Jets. Peters was also hopeful they would see Georgia Cassidy and Susan Phonsongkham return before the end of the season. Having beaten the 11th-placed Jets 3-2 back in round two, Peters said he expected a similarly physical battle. “I don’t think they’ll change their principles too much, they create a lot of chances, they cause a lot of problems,” he said. “You really have to be on your guard when you play them, they really turn it into a transitional battle and they’re quite a physical team. “We definitely need to be on our toes with Newcastle, we definitely can’t look at the ladder and suggest because they’re in that particular position and we’re in our particular position. we can take them likely.”