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Fornaroli looking forward to Adelaide final
Melbourne City's star forward talks about his goals against Perth Glory and says he is enjoying the way things are going.
PT3M7S 620 349Western Sydney Wanderers defender Scott Jamieson keenly recalls the last time he played in a finals match at home – but cycling through the happenings in between is a vast catalogue of disappointments and let-downs.
This Sunday, for the first time in seven years, he'll play for the home team in a sudden death match after year upon year of away finals or missing out completely. A decade into his professional career, there's not a single piece of silver to show.
"Last year, we got stitched up at Perth Glory, which was obviously beyond our control – and the year before that we were very unlucky to be knocked out away to Melbourne Victory," he recalls. "I only played in the one final at Sydney FC, which was away to Wellington, and again, we lost."
Home sweet home: Western Sydney Wanderers defender Scott Jamieson. Photo: Daniel Munoz
"So you've got to go back, way back, to the 2008-2009 season, my first at Adelaide, when we hosted Brisbane Roar in an elimination final. They must have had about 20 shots to our one, but that it happened to be an absolute cracker from Fabian Barbiero and we made the grand final – and lost away to Melbourne Victory."
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Having been on the wrong end of the stick more times than he would care to count, Jamieson is relishing the idea of a final at at Pirtek Stadium this Sunday, the last A-League match at the venue before it gets a dramatic overhaul in time for the 2017-18 season.
"You need lots of little things to go right for you in a final and that big noise that the Wanderers fans bring is clearly going to be a factor, especially in a match as big as this," he said. "I was watching Thomas Broich on television on Sunday night and even he mentioned that a few years ago [2012-13] they played in a final at Parramatta and the atmosphere was amazing. So even Brisbane are already thinking about it, which goes to show what an influence home ground advantage really has."
Including this finals series, in the last four seasons, only two times has a team won away from home, proving just how hard it is to succeed on the road.
But if the Wanderers and Adelaide both win at home this weekend, the grand final will be at Adelaide Oval – and Jamieson has no doubt who'll bring the noise there.
"One thing unique to the Wanderers is that we know our fans will make a difference at home and away," Jamieson said. "We took a couple of hundred across to Wellington in the final game of the season, which is basically unheard of. As players, we're pretty lucky to be able to count on that kind support."
While Jamieson concedes Brisbane showed tremendous resolve to right back from a 1-0 deficit to advance through to an elimination semi-final, he doesn't believe it's a quality the Roar have exclusive rights over.
"You have to applaud what they did to come back from that position and to have that never-say-die approach, it's clearly something that helped them get over the line," he said. "But I think we have the exact same qualities. We've fallen behind this season a few times and have dug our way out of trouble. Our fitness and belief are our strengths and that's what you need late in games."
Nor does the defender believe that the Roar's 2-1 season record over the Wanderers – including a 3-1 win on the opening day of the year – will have any bearing this weekend.
"If you include the FFA Cup game that everyone seems to have forgotten, it's probably 2-2," he said. "The reason we lost both of those games was down to mistakes, plain and simple. If we eliminate those, we're confident we'll be fine."
Jamieson described the having the week off as a "nice balance" and said he held no fear it would disrupt their fitness or momentum.
"We've played for 27 weeks, we won't be lacking anything in terms of fitness," he said. "I can only see positives from having the chance to rest and relax and get ourselves in the best shape possible for what's going to be, what we hope, will be the biggest two weeks of the year."