Perth Glory’s 3-2 loss to Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night was painful enough for coach Ian Ferguson, but worse still was the continuation of their horror run of injuries and suspension.
Undermanned heading into the clash against the Hyundai A-League leaders, the Glory will now travel to North Queensland without the services of Josh Mitchell and Scott Neville, who were both sent from the field late in the game.
Naum Sekulovski is another in severe doubt for the match against the Fury on Sunday after he left the field in the 13th minute with what looked to be a groin tear.
Coach Ian Ferguson appeared exasperated as he detailed his side’s unavailability woes.
“It’s been tough. But I don’t want to make excuses. We’ve now got more injury problems and now we’ve got a lot of suspensions,” he said.
“I’ve lost four centre-halves in the last six days, so it’s going to be a tough one up in North Queensland. But we need to do what we can with our patched up team and see where it takes us.”
“There’s no easy fix. We’ve got the same nucleus of players that we’ve been playing for the last 10 weeks. I’d like to get some new faces to freshen the place up.”
The Glory’s discipline has been a point of real concern this season, and Neville’s performance will no doubt earn him some harsh words from Ferguson.
The 21-year-old was playing in his return from suspension and his second bookable offence, which delivered Brisbane the game-breaking penalty, was reckless at best.
“Once we had a player sent off we went to three at the back. With the ability and movement of Brisbane it was always going to cause problems and I was always a bit hesitant to try to go with that.”
“We were 2-0 down and we got the penalty back … then all of a sudden we shoot ourselves in the foot again giving away a penalty and having a man sent off,” said Ferguson.
If Perth can take anything from the loss – their 11th in their last 13 games – it was the impact of substitutes Robbie Fowler and Adrian Pellegrino, who both scored goals and added genuine zip in the second-half.
“I thought (Fowler) and Pellegrino made a difference, I really did, and that’s what I want from my subs. Over the last few weeks I’ve not seen that,” said Ferguson.
“The fact that they’ve come on and scored two goals was great. I think it was the first time that I’ve seen my subs come on and make a good contribution.”
