A-League Men: Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths says returning players will have to work for their spots

Perth Glory’s returning array of stars will not have it easy, with coach Adam Griffiths forecasting an increase in training ground intensity as he prepares to welcome back key players approaching full fitness. Griffiths bemoaned his side’s inability to capitalise on vital moments in their 3-2 loss to Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park as Spanish superstar Juan Mata led the hosts to a comeback win. Glory fans will find plenty of positives from their two-game road trip in Melbourne, particularly it came with injured attacking trio Lachie Wales, Jaiden Kucharski and Sebastian Despotovski back in Perth. Adam Taggart was once again restricted to a substitute role as he continues his return from a groin injury, having also nursed a heel issue for most of this season. And the match marked the first appearance of the season for English midfielder Luke Amos, who made an immediate impact as he robbed Denis Genreau of the ball and provided the assist for substitute Khoa Ngo’s goal within minutes of his introduction. But while Griffiths was optimistic about the impact of the returning players, he felt there was a need to increase training loads in order to achieve their desired outputs. “They’re quality players. What we need to do is to build on those minutes, but more importantly, regularly training at the intensity that the rest of the group have been doing,” Griffiths said. “That’s key for any player to play at their their maximum, at their top of their game and until we have that, then it’s not going to be enough. We need to push them harder.” Perth sit 10th after 11 games this season, but importantly are only seven points off first place as little separates most of the ladder. With back-to-back home matches ahead, starting with Central Coast Mariners at HBF Park on Saturday, Griffiths said his team needed to be clinical when it came to seizing the moments. They started strongly against Melbourne and went ahead through Trent Ostler’s strike, but faded as Mata and Genreau won the midfield battle for Victory. Former Manchester United and Chelsea star Mata provided two assists after Louis D’Arrigo’s injury-time strike levelled the scores at the break, with Nishan Velupillay and Clarismario Santos finding the net in the second half. “We need to be better with the ball, and if we’re better with the ball, then we don’t have to have so much pressure on us constantly, especially through that middle stage,” Griffiths said. “I felt that we weren’t good enough in that moment, in those moments, and then we have to try to claw our way back. “When you finish this game and you’re disappointed you didn’t win, that shows that we’re going in the right direction, but it’s still not good enough. “The boys know that we need to improve. This was a very good Victory team, they’ve got a lot of confidence, a lot of momentum. “We had a chance to kill that momentum, silence the crowd going into the break, and that momentum shifted.”