Perth Glory vs Western Sydney Wanderers Tips & Prediction - Wanderers to collect three points out west

Glory have emerged from nowhere to head into this encounter with back-to-back victories over Newcastle Jets and Macarthur FC, while the Wanderers produced easily their best performance of the season to snap Sydney FC's four-game winning streak in an outstanding derby showdown, prevailing 1-0 on the back of an inspired performance from rising defender Anthony Pantazopoulos.

Which side keeps their momentum going in this vital Round 7 clash? I'm still not convinced with Perth - they received a fortuitous penalty to edge out a poor Jets side before taking advantage of a fatigued Macarthur last week. It's obviously still a huge improvement from this Glory side, but I'm going to need to see more. The Wanderers had been underachieving before their fantastic showing against Sydney, so if they can translate that form over to this game, they should be the favourites. Backing Western Sydney, with both teams finding the back of the net.

The Wanderers have dominated this H2H in recent times, winning four of the last five meetings between the teams - including a most-recent 4-1 triumph in March of this year.

After picking up consecutive wooden spoons, it was another nightmare start to the season for Perth, with coach David Zdrillic sent packing after just two games.

Still without a permanent head coach, Adam Griffiths has stepped into the role as interim boss and has sparked a recent turnaround.

Indeed, Perth have won back-to-back away games in the A-League for the first time since 2021, taking down Australia Cup champions Newcastle 2-1 before last weekend's 2-0 triumph over Macarthur in Campbelltown.

Nicholas Pennington and Charbel Shamoon were on target in the second half, with Perth climbing off the bottom of the table into 10th heading into Round 7.

Perth Glory squad: 2.Charbel SHAMOON, 4.Scott WOOTTON (co-c), 5.Riley FOXE, 6.Brandon O’NEILL, 7.Nicholas PENNINGTON, 8.Callum TIMMINS, 9.Jaiden KUCHARSKI, 16.Gabriel POPOVIC,18.Rhys BOZINOVSKI, 19.Josh RISDON, 20.Trent OSTLER , 21.Adam BUGARIJA, 22.Adam TAGGART (co-c), 25.Sebastian DESPOTOVSKI, 26.Khoa NGO, 27.Will FRENEY, 29.Matt SUTTON (gk), 34.Tom LAWRENCE, 40.Ryan WARNER (gk), 45.Brian KALTAK

It was a lacklustre start to the season from the Wanderers, failing to pick up a win across their opening four games.

However, Western Sydney have started to find the sort of form that propelled them to a fourth-placed finish last season.

The Wanderers edged out the Mariners 3-2 before rising to the occasion and ending Sydney FC's four-game winning run in last week's thrilling derby at CommBank.

Alou Kuol fired home from close range in the 51st minute in what proved the decisive moment, while defender Anthony Pantazopoulos was the man of the match, popping up everywhere and inspiring his side to a memorable victory.

Western Sydney Wanderers squad: 2. Gabriel CLEUR, 3. Alexander GERSBACH, 4. Alexander BONETIG, 5. Dylan SCICLUNA, 6. Mohamed AL-TAAY, 8. Steven UGARKOVIC, 9. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 17. Jarrod CARLUCCIO, 19. Ruon TONGYIK, 20. Lawrence THOMAS, 21. Aydan HAMMOND, 22. Anthony PANTAZOPOULOS, 23. Bozhidar KRAEV, 24. Nathan Barrie, 25. Joshua BRILLANTE, 30. Jordan HOLMES, 31. Aidan SIMMONS, 32. Angus THURGATE, 39. Awan LUAL, 45. Alou KUOL