A-League Men: Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths will continue to manage co-captain Adam Taggart’s fitness

Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths says they will continue to nurse record-equalling goalscorer and co-captain Adam Taggart through training until he is back at full health. As Glory prepare to welcome a raft of attacking options into their side, Griffiths also said import Luke Amos had not yet staked a serious claim for increased minutes among a competitive midfield group. Taggart notched his 59th A-League goal for his hometown club in Friday night’s 2-1 home defeat to Brisbane Roar to draw level with Andy Keogh for the most scored for Glory in the A-League era. Perth were in control of the match until a controversial handball decision against Taggart up the other end allowed Brisbane back into the match. Chris Long’s resultant penalty, awarded after a Video Assistant Referee intervention, and Samuel Klein’s looped header kept Perth outside the top six ahead of next Sunday’s visit to Western Sydney Wanderers. With Socceroos coach Tony Popovic in the crowd as he continues to run the rule over World Cup hopefuls ahead of June’s tournament, Taggart’s well-taken opener and link-up play will have done his chances no harm. But the Glory great has battled heel and adductor issues despite playing 12 of 13 possible games and Griffiths admitted he was not training every day in order to be ready for matchdays. “We want to get him back to full fitness and training every single day. That will help in performance, and it’ll help the team,” he said. “But we’ve got to manage him, because we know he’s an important player and if we can get him back to full fitness we will be a better team.” With his side chasing the game late, English midfielder Amos was restricted to a cameo appearance with less than 10 minutes of regular time remaining. Even with Will Freney (hip) sidelined, the form of young central midfield duo Rhys Bozinovski and Gio De Abreu has kept Amos out of the side and Griffiths said the 28 year-old needed to earn his spot back in the team. When asked how many minutes Amos was capable of playing, Griffiths said “what he played” against the Roar. “He needs to continue to work harder, push himself for training to get up to the speed of the other players,” he said. Glory young gun Sebastian Despotovski returned from a calf complaint against Brisbane, while Lachie Wales and Jaiden Kucharski are also nearing returns from soft tissue injuries and former fan favourite Stefan Colakovski expected to sign with the club in the current transfer window. Griffiths was frustrated with the defeat to a disciplined Brisbane, whose gamesmanship and physicality ruffled Perth’s feathers, while their organisation behind the ball limited opportunities for Glory star Tom Lawrence. “They play a particular brand of football that’s difficult to beat. And if you don’t take your chances and you don’t give away average goals, then you lose the game because they are so well-organised and structured,” Griffiths said. “We’ll reassess the performance and have a look at a few things and see how we can build that confidence into the team to continue to play the way we want to play. “Everything we do at training, we have to drive the players to be brave, to be positive, to be connected, and if we do that, that eventually becomes the norm and we continue to play the way we know that’s going to win football games.”