Western United pleased to be back at their 'home away from home'

Photo:  Western United players in the arrivals area at Hobart Airport today. [PlessPix] 

Western United arrived in Hobart at lunch time today.

Their A-League meeting with Western Sydney Wanderers is at North Hobart Oval tomorrow at 5pm.

Western United, who won the A-League title in 2022 are currently languishing in last place, 4 points adrift of second-last Perth Glory.

They had the weekend off last week and this will be their first game since the 3-3 draw with sixth-placed Macarthur FC.

Western Sydney Wanderers, who won the Asian Champions League title in 2014, the only Australian club to have achieved this honour, are currently third on the A-League standings.

Western United coach, former Australian international John Aloisi, is looking forward to tomorrow’s game.

Last season, Western United beat Sydney FC 1-0 at North Hobart.

This campaign, they have scored only 11 goals in 12 games.

Photo:  John Aloisi, Western United's coach, speaks to the media at Hobart Airport today. [PlessPix] 

“We really enjoyed last time when we were here and we had a good result against Sydney FC,” Aloisi said.

“It was a cracker of a goal right at the end and we deserved the win and we’re hoping that we can continue on with the good performance and a win here because we love coming to Tasmania.

“We’ve been performing well, but the luck hasn’t been going our way.

“The luck will go our way.  We know that.

“We’ve been creating a lot of chances.  We’ve got a lot of young players and they’ll be better for this period of time where things have gone against us.

“We’ve got a few more injuries so more young players come in.

“The performance was really good against Macarthur and the week before against Melbourne City and we’re really looking forward to the same.

‘If we do that, we believe we can win.”

Aloisi said his strikers needed confidence and, once they started to score, that confidence would come and they’d attract the ball like a magnet.

He said he hoped people would come to watch the club’s exciting Brazilian striker, Daniel dos Santos Penha.

He has just returned from an ACL injury and scored two goals in the last game.

Photo:  Western United captain and fullback, Josh Risdon, 31, after the team arrived in Hobart today. [PlessPix] 

Western United captain, defender Josh Risdon, is also looking forward to tomorrow’s clash against one of his former clubs.

“It’s great to be back,” Risdon said.  “Obviously, we came here last year and got a good result and enjoyed the trip.

“We’re looking forward to being back for the next two games and hopefully we can do well in those two games and pick up some points.

“Every time we’ve played in Tassie, be it in Launceston or in Hobart, the fans have come out and shown their support.

“We’ve got a bit of a fan base down here and it does feel like a home game, which is great and it helps a lot.”

Risdon is impressed with the surface at North Hobart and said the old ‘antique’ stands gave it a good feel.

“Results wise, things haven’t been great for us at the moment but there’s still time to turn it around,” Risdon said.

“We’ve been playing well in a lot of games and we just continue to perform consistently and turning these good performances into results, then it’s still pretty close in the league and if you get a good run in the A-League you can climb up the table pretty quickly.\

“I still believe we can do that towards the end of the season and then we’ve just got to make the finals and you can do a lot of damage.

“The stats show we’ve been creating a lot of chances so we just need to keep creating and when it rains it pours so hopefully in one game they’ll all go in for us.

“I feel like we’ve got a performance like that coming.”