Perth Glory v West Ham United
Unmissable Football pre-season tour, Optus Stadium, Saturday 15 July 2023, 6pm AWST/11am BST
West Ham United’s Unmissable Football pre-season tour arrives at Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, for a pre-season fixture between the Irons and A-League club Perth Glory.
David Moyes’ Irons will be in action 9,000 miles from London Stadium on what is just the Club's second visit to Australia and first since a four-match centenary tour in May 1995, when they took on a Western Australia XI at the WACA ground and drew 2-2.
The pre-season schedule began with a 4-1 win at National League outfit Boreham Wood on Monday evening and will also see the Hammers face Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur in Perth next Tuesday evening and then travel to France and Germany.
Tickets…
Both matches are now on General Sale here with a designated West Ham United area situated behind the goal in the East Stand. This is marked on the map of the ticketing website at purchase, and Hammers fans are advised to purchase now to guarantee their seat in this area.
Accessible seating options are visible when purchasing, with supporters having two options - Wheelchair accessible seating (over 400 spots around the stadium) and Accessible amenity/easy access seating. Click here to buy now.
Travel…
To get to Optus Stadium, take a suburban train to Perth Stadium Station, or a bus to Perth Stadium Bus Station. Again, journey times from the city centre are short. For full public transport information, click here.
How To Follow…
Saturday's Unmissable Football tour opener against Perth Glory will be streamed live and for free on whufc.com and our official mobile app.
If you are not in Western Australia for the 11am BST kick-off, don't worry as you can catch every kick of the action with us, free of charge!
To watch, all you need to do is log-in to your West Ham Account - this is the same as the account you use for our online ticketing and store - and is free to register. If you haven't already dowloaded our app, click here to install now!
Then, on matchday simply click here to watch.
Team News…
The first-team squad who have not been involved in international fixtures over June and early July returned to pre-season training on Thursday 6 July. The likes of Jarrod Bowen, Danny Ings, Kurt Zouma, Aaron Cresswell, Łukasz Fabiański, Pablo Fornals and Angelo Ogbonna have all travelled to Australia.
Pre-season also provides manager David Moyes and his coaching staff to take a closer look at the developing talent in the Academy of Football. Divin Mubama, Levi Laing, Freddie Potts, Kamarai Swyer and George Earthy are among the young Hammers who are in Perth.
Opposition…
Founded in December 1995, Perth Glory began life playing in the National Soccer League the following year.
Glory won three NSL Premiership titles and won the Championship Grand Final in 2003 and 2004.
When Football Federation Australia formally launched the A-League in 2005 to replace the NSL as the national football competition in the country, Glory were naturally announced as one of the inaugural members.
However, success initially proved hard to come by and, despite the presence of a succession of high-profile coaches and impressive players, trophies have proved elusive in the A-League era.
Indeed, Glory have won just one A-League Premiership and have never won the season-ending Championship, finishing as runners-up in 2012 and 2019. Perth have also reached two Australia Cup finals, losing in 2014 and 2015.
Among those previous coaches were ex-Liverpool and England midfielder Steve McMahon, former Rangers and Scotland midfielder Ian Ferguson and former West Ham forward and 1999 FA Youth Cup winner Richard Garcia.
Glory are currently seeking a new head coach after the departure of former Derby County and Notts County player Ruben Zadkovich at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Previous Meetings…
The Hammers have never met Perth Glory previously, unsurprisingly!
However, West Ham United were in the State capital of Western Australia in May 1995 to kick-off the Club's four-match Centenary Tour Down Under.
West Ham had ended the 1994/95 season by holding Manchester United to a 1-1 draw that denied the Red Devils the Premier League title on Sunday 14 May. Five days later, a very different-looking Hammers team was in action 9,000 miles away at the famous WACA ground in the city of Perth.
Tim Breacker, Steve Potts and Don Hutchison all started both games, while Martin Allen and Simon Webster, who had appeared as substitutes against Manchester United, were also in the team to face a Western Australia select XI featuring Socceroos Robert Zabica, Bobby Despotovski and a certain Stan Lazaridis.
Winger Lazaridis impressed Redknapp during a competitive 2-2 draw to such an extent that he joined West Ham for a bargain £300,000 fee a few weeks later!
