Taki Nicolaidis has revealed his players are in peak condition for the demands of playing twice in three days over the Easter long weekend.   Inglewood United have home ground advantage over Perth Glory on Saturday and 48 hours later travel to Dorrien Gardens for an FFA Cup showdown with Perth SC.

It’s the sort of schedule that would cause concern for many a coach but not Nicolaidis, who has been hard at work preparing his squad for the Easter test.   “We’ve topped up on the fitness side of things in the past few weeks and we’ll ease off a little bit this week in preparation the two games,” Nicolaidis told letstalkfootball.org.

“The good thing is we do have depth in the squad, in the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to bring players off the bench who’ve made a positive influence on the game.   That competition brings the best out of players and we’re looking forward to putting on a good show against Glory and Perth.”

Nicolaidis dismissed suggestions he would rest players against Glory to ensure he can field his strongest possible line-up against Perth.   “I’m not taking Glory lightly and I’m not going to sacrifice three points and risk going in with a weakened side (on Saturday) to be at full strength for Monday,” the Inglewood coach said.

“The focus at this stage is purely on Glory and making sure we continue our good form.   We’ll regroup and meet on Sunday to see where all the players are at and put a squad together for the Monday game.   We will go to Dorrien Gardens with a full squad and hopefully come home with a place in the last sixteen of the Cup.”