Mark Bridge wants to celebrate his 150th Hyundai A-League game this weekend with a win.
Mark Bridge wants to celebrate his 150th Hyundai A-League game this weekend with a win.
In fact, the NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderer winger is not too worried about the milestone.
He just wants to beat Perth Glory FC and get his team onto or closer to the top of the table.
“I am hoping we win,” Bridge said when asked about the milestone game.
“As long as we win I will be happy.”
It is hard to believe the striker cum winger who has played 50 games for the Newcastle Jets and 80 games for Sydney FC and 19 for the Wanderers is still only 27.
He has been a regular on A-League highlights reels for years scoring 38 career goals and is often described as the player who scored a goal in each of the grand finals he competed in – one for Newcastle against Central Coast in 2008 (Jets won 1-0) and the other for Sydney against Melbourne in 2010 (Sydney won 1-1, 4-2 on penalties).
Bridge knows a winning team when he sees one and his discipline, consistency and ruthlessness in front of goal shown this season has him in career best form.
“I see a winning team and a winning club here,” Bridge said.
“We have a lot of good players here and a great coaching staff.
“We will be in the finals, I take it, and as long as we get there we will see where it takes us.
“We are on a bit of a roll at the moment and the last couple of weeks we probably haven-t been at our best but we still got the results.
“But once we turn that around it will get even better.”
Bridge puts his form and the results for the Wanderers down to hard work.
“It has been good winning, of course, but it has been tough,” he said.
“The preseason was very tough and training has been tough throughout.
“It is a lot of hard work but the results have been coming on the weekend so I don-t think anyone is complaining about all of the running.”
