Popovic: Wanderers form changes nothing

Tony Popovic says the message he delivers to his Western Sydney players will not change despite their rise to third on the A-League table.

The Wanderers had won their past three outings before a 1-1 draw with Perth Glory at Patersons Stadium on Thursday and their position toward the top of the standings has surprised some pundits.

But Popovic said nothing has changed internally for the A-League’s newcomers.

“Our football, our philosophy of football has been the same. There’s just more in the attacking third, there is more belief and we’re putting away the attacking opportunities,” he said.

“We’re becoming more clinical in front of goal, but we’ve created opportunities from day one.”

Labinot Haliti displayed that ruthlessness in front of goal on 36 minutes with a strike that handed the Wanderers the lead when he stepped inside Josh Risdon and snuck the ball home off the woodwork.

However, the visitors were forced to see off a late onslaught from Perth to take a point from the encounter after Nick Ward equalised in the 86th minute.

The Glory had a number of chances to snatch all three points late, but the Western Sydney defence held firm.

“It was difficult in the end for us. They came very hard at us at the end, the last 15-20 minutes,” Popovic said.

“But in the end it was very pleasing. We had to be brave, we had to be strong and the boys showed a lot of character, put their bodies on the line and we got a point in the end and we definitely at least deserved that.”

Popovic attributed the recent run of impressive results to consistent performances.

“There’s hardly been any (games) that I’ve walked off and thought we let outselves down,” he said.

“When you’re in every game you always have an opportunity to get the results and what’s happened now is we’ve gone three consecutive wins and another draw.”

“But we’re not halfway through the season yet. There’s a long way to go, we’ll be judged after 27 games and rightly so.”