Welsh midfielder Jess Fishlock is confident that Melbourne City’s W-League side will peak at the right time as the business end of the season approaches.
City returned to the winner’s list with a nail-biting 1-0 win over the Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney on New Year’s Day.
Despite dominating proceedings, Kisnorbo’s side left it late as Fishlock salvaged all three points with her fifth goal of the campaign in the 92nd minute to seal a much deserved three points.
Following the match, the Welsh international praised the efforts of her teammates but admitted her side must take their chances in-front of goal to fully capitalise on their dominance in possession.
“It was a tough game from the point of view that we had a lot of the ball and did what we usually do with the ball and dominate the game, but it’s difficult for us to put the ball in the back of the net at the moment,” Fishlock said.
“With the amount of chances that we create – maybe it does come down to the fact that we always believe that we will have another chance so we are not as ruthless as we should be.
“We have a group of girls that they all have [the desire to win], we’re led by Steph [Catley] who has the same attitude – who is great, who is playing through a couple of little niggles right now because her willingness is that she wants us to do well, and wants us to succeed,” she added.
“All we want to do is put it right on the field, we know that it’s not 100% and we could be a lot better in aspects of our game but we work hard every day to make it better.
“If you look at last year, we had kind of a similar year, and then went on to win it,” she added.
City face Perth Glory in a blockbuster match for a spot in the top-four on Saturday, a challenge that the midfielder is very much looking forward to.
“I think we can take real confidence from the fact that when it was in the final last year we managed to keep Perth quiet, and keep Sam [Kerr] quiet,” Fishlock said.
“I know that we lost 4-1 against them [in Round 1], but we had some issues with our goalkeeper who broke her wrist in the warm-up and we still played some really good stuff and had about 15 shots on goal in that game.”
“I fully believe that with the games that we have left, it’s in our hands. It’s just a case of concentrating while we are defending and being ruthless in front of goal. We will peak at the right time.
City face Perth Glory at the City Football Academy on Sunday, 7 January 2017, kick-off 4:30pm.
