Fresh from an outstanding display in which they pumped four goals past Sydney, Glory will be brimming with self-belief and Farina insisted no-one should be fooled by their lowly league position.

“Perth are a different side to when we last played them and they’ll be full of confidence now,” said the Roar boss.

"In their last outing against Sydney they thoroughly deserved their win. They played really well, showed what they’re capable of and they relaxed, which allowed them to express themselves. That makes any team dangerous."

He added: “They don’t have too much to lose at the moment even though mathematically they could still make the finals.

"This will be a very tough game which is made tougher by the length of the trip to get there. If we can get something out of the game I’ll be very happy.

“We’ll be going there to win; it’s as simple as that. We won’t be going there to sit back and defend because we don’t play like that and we’re in a decent position right now so we want to maintain it.

“Naturally, it’d be fantastic if we can get the three points because this league is so difficult to both play in and predict.

"Even with only four games to go there are so many things that could still happen and we have to keep getting points from every game.

“There are a lot of ‘ifs’ at the moment and our focus has to be controlling our own destiny and trying to do what we can for our own situation.”

Farina has consistently played down talk of a serious tilt at the Premiership, but with four games to go and only trailing Mariners by three points, he said today that it’s a realistic goal for his troops.

“If we find ourselves in a situation where we can have a good go at top spot then that’ll be fantastic, but our immediate goal is to make the top four and play finals football for the first time," he said.

“Obviously though there’s a big prize there if you can win the league - qualification for the Asian Champions League.

"It’s still within our sights and there’s no reason why as a club and as a group we shouldn’t try to achieve that. There are seven other teams that want the same thing and two or three that can still do it.

“I still believe in what I said at the start of the season, that finals places, and even the Premiership, will go down to the wire. It’s within our sights though and really it’s a matter of how desperate and how hungry we are to try and achieve it,” he said.

Queensland will be without Stuart McLaren for the clash with Perth after he failed to recover from an ankle sprain, but Robbie Kruse, who missed training today with a virus, is expected to travel.

Returning for the trip west is Danny Tiatto, however Michael Zullo is still on the road to recovery and is slated for a return against Melbourne Victory on January 5th.

The Christmas break has been kind to Roar with a number of players able to shake off minor knocks after the 1-1 draw with Wellington Phoenix, but whether the week off has cost the team impetus remains to be seen, Farina says.

“The short break has helped us out in a lot of ways because we got a bit bashed up in Wellington and had a few players with niggling injuries," he added.

"A number of those players wouldn’t have been able to back up and play the following week so it certainly came at a good time for us.

“Has it cost us some momentum? Well I'll answer that on Sunday after the game!”