Perth Glory interim coach Ian Ferguson says his Christmas will be just that little bit more enjoyable after seeing his side keep their slim hopes of finals football alive through a big win over Adelaide United.
Going into the Wednesday night’s game in last position against the league’s second-placed side, all the stats pointed towards Perth being on the wrong end of a significant loss.
But fired up by a Ferguson call to arms, where he urged his players to regard this game as a virtual ‘Cup Final’, Perth responded with a thrilling 4-2 win as Robbie Fowler scored twice in the second half in one of the season’s best games.
The result sees Perth climb to ninth on the table as they find themselves just five points adrift of Newcastle in sixth, although the Jets still enjoy a significant goal difference advantage and have three games in hand over the Glory.
“It’s (the win) obviously thrown us a little lifeline,” said Ferguson.
“We never say never until it’s mathematically impossible (to make the finals).”
“I felt over the last three, four weeks the performances have been pretty reasonable and unfortunately we weren’t getting the goals and silly mistakes were costing us.”
“I just feel as though that time was running out for us, we had to do something sooner rather than later especially with home games.”
“(So) it was our Cup Final and the boys tonight showed that, they were first to a lot of things, they showed the desire, showed their hunger, determination.”
“Will I enjoy Christmas … I will enjoy,” he added. “I’ll have a few drinks and obviously celebrate the Christmas time but I know there’s still a lot of work to be done and we’ve got to go on with it.”
The task doesn’t get any easier for Perth as they face three of the league’s top four sides over the next four matches.
But the club will be boosted by the return of Chris Coyne from his extended loan spell at Chinese Super League side Liaoning Hongyun in January, while Ferguson will be looking at bringing in further reinforcements during the transfer period.
However, the Glory have been hit by the news that key defender Andy Todd will miss a significant amount of January as he struggles to recover from a slight tear to his hip flexor that he sustained in mid November.
“He’s sort of started back and then he came back too early,” Ferguson said.
“It’s probably set him back a little bit, so he’s probably maybe two or three weeks away.”
As for reports midfielder Adriano Pellegrino may be heading to Central Coast in January, Ferguson said the former club champion was still a required player, especially after seeing his brilliant through-ball set up Fowler’s first goal against Adelaide.
“I think it was one of the blogs, somebody showed me that (reported) it was Mariners had been in touch,” he said.
“As far as I know nothings been said to the player and nothing’s been said to me.”
“So I don’t know if that’s just speculation, but he has been playing fantastic football, the last three, four games.”
“At the top of the diamond, he’s been creative and he’s put some fantastic balls through again tonight. (He) puts a power of work in, so that’s what I’m looking for from the players, Pellegrino has given us a fantastic reaction and long may it continue.”
