A two-legged affair against the Glory
With our two remaining W-League games being against Perth Glory, the fixturing quirk introduces an interesting ‘two-leg’ dynamic to round out the season.
We previously saw this against Melbourne Victory in Rounds 3 and 4 earlier this campaign, with those clashes demonstrating the potential for teams to learn from their performance in the first game and turn it around entirely in the second fixture, making for an unpredictable two-game tie overall.
😍 Derby winning scenes#MelbDerby #MVCvMCY #WLeague #CmonCity pic.twitter.com/QDFSl66STL
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) January 17, 2021
Emma Checker celebrates a century of appearances
City captain Emma Checker is set to celebrate her 100th W-League game when she takes to the field this Friday against Perth Glory.
The Adelaide-born defender began her W-League career with her hometown club, making 42 appearances for the Reds before stints with Canberra United and Melbourne Victory.
.@WLeague appearance number 💯 coming up for Captain Checker on Friday night! 😍
Ahead of this big milestone, we take a look at the numbers behind her and Glory defender Sarah Carroll's season. 🔢#CmonCity
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) March 17, 2021
Checker has made 21 appearances for City, scoring one goal and winning a Premiership and Championship with City’s undefeated side of 2019/20, before taking on club captaincy in 2020/21.
A chance to string some late-season momentum together
Following our hard-fought win over the Newcastle Jets on Sunday, City can now approach our clash with Perth Glory as an opportunity to string together consecutive wins and hit some late-season form.
Miss yesterday's win over Newcastle? 🤔
Don't worry, we've got you covered! Check out all the action from what was a strong performance from your City women. 💪#CmonCity pic.twitter.com/MWYLJfz899
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) March 14, 2021
Rounding out the season with maximum points could also see City recover some ground on the table, with the side currently level with Newcastle on seven points, though the Jets have a superior goal difference.
Sneaking into seventh is also a mathematical possibility, with Western Sydney currently on 13 points with one game to play.
Back-to-back clean sheets on the cards?
After holding Brisbane to a 0-0 draw in Round 1, it took until Sunday’s win against the Jets to record a second clean sheet of the season.
Three points ✅
Clean sheet ✅#CmonCity pic.twitter.com/clPHzubtH8— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) March 15, 2021
With 16-year-old Naomi Chinnama putting in a strong performance alongside her more senior defensive partners Jenna McCormick and Emma Checker, the City back three were able to restrict Newcastle to four shots on target, all of which keeper Melissa Barbieri was able to deal with comfortably.
Following that confidence-boosting performance, the City defence will be eager to secure another clean sheet against ninth-place Perth, who’ve scored the fewest goals in the competition.
Capitalising on Perth’s packed fixture and short turnaround
Perth’s W-League side have recently entered into hectic stretch of games as they work through a backlog of postponed early-season fixtures, with the Glory set to play their fourth game in 12 days when they face City on Friday night.
City’s five-day turnaround between games holds them in good stead against Perth, who will have just three days to recover from their Tuesday night clash against Melbourne Victory, which ended in an 0-1 loss.
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