Canberra United start a crucial stage of the season with a tricky undertaking in the form of a trip to Perth and a fixture against Perth Glory as the Ninja A-League reaches the sharp end of the campaign in Round 21.
United do so on the back of three successive defeats, meaning the team have now gone six matches without a win, having drawn the trio of games prior to this run of setbacks.
Indeed, the last time United claimed a victory was, ironically, the 1-0 win over Glory on Saturday 1 February. A crowd of 1,807 witnessed a narrow win courtesy of a 56th minute goal from New Zealand international defender Elizabeth Anton.
Anton’s matchwinner in the home clash against the Glory was Canberra’s first win over their Western Australian opponents in seven matches, the previous half-a-dozen encounters having seen four draws and two losses.
The team in green have a respectable record on their cross-country visits, having only succumbed to three defeats in fifteen matches, winning five of those encounters with the other seen clashes ending in a draw.
There’s also often goals galore when these two meet, 119 of them in thirty matches at an average of close to four per game. In fact, in the last five matches there have been a total of twenty-goals that have rippled the back of the net suggesting we might be in for a few on the weekend.
The series of matches between the clubs has also featured a 7-2 Canberra United win in January 2017, and a pair of hugely entertaining 4-4 draws in 2018, coming at each end of the year, the first in January in Western Australia, the second in November back in the ACT.
Prior to back-to-back league losses to Perth in late 2022, and 2023, Canberra had only tasted defeat against Perth twice in 26 fixtures, the Glory garnering just six points from a possible forty-eight in the first sixteen matches played, United twice putting together five-game winning streaks.
For all the history involved, it’s the here and now that matters and with Perth staining in ninth, just two points behind Canberra, and United only one adrift of Brisbane Roar who occupy the final place available in the top six for finals football, the importance of this match cannot be overstated.
Make sure you don’t miss this as the Sam Kerr Football Centre prepares for a monumental showdown.
