Perth Glory wasn’t complaining about a potential missed opportunity at a victory over the Melbourne Heart on Saturday with coach Ian Ferguson just pleased to have his team continue some good recent form.
The Glory outplayed the Heart for a lot of Saturday’s match at nib Stadium against the Heart going ahead with a first half goal to Todd Howarth and appearing to go up 2-0 in the second when it appeared a Jamie Harnwell header got through traffic and crossed the goal line.
However, it was declared that Melbourne’s Wayne Srhoj cleared it and while Ferguson does feel it should have been a goal, he understands why it was a difficult call for the referee and his assistants, and wasn’t about to lay the blame on anyone for it not being counted.
“I really can’t blame the referee. At the end of the day he’s in the middle of the park and the linesman probably has a better view of that. It has not been given and what can you do? You just have to move on,” Ferguson said.
“We’ve all seen it now and it was over the line. Sure the players were bitterly disappointed, particularly little Adriano Pellegrino was especially upset because he knew it was in the net.”
“It wasn’t given, though, so there’s nothing you can do. It would have been a nice cushion to have the 2-0 lead, but it wasn’t to be.”
It’s likely that goal line video technology would have declared that it was a second goal to the Glory and Ferguson would be supportive of that if it was introduced, but he’s not going to get caught up in fighting for it given it’s so far out of his hands.
“Obviously I am a fan of that and would like to see it actually happen, but again it’s up to the powers above. If they want to bring that in, they can bring it in.”
Midfielder Steve McGarry and his teammates were understandably disappointed that the goal wasn’t awarded but he is happy with the way the Glory are on the way to finishing a tough 2010/11 campaign with a bit of momentum.
“The guys were bitterly disappointed the way it panned out. That two-goal cushion would have been enough for us to see it through, but it’s hard for the official. The linesman should have the better view, but he’s probably got 12 guys in front of him,” McGarry said.
“It wasn’t given, but we’ve been on a good run of late and the guys are feeling confident. We’ll keep our heads focused until it’s mathematically impossible to make the finals though.”
While the Glory did play well, Ferguson acknowledges that the Heart lifted in the second half and in the end he couldn’t complain about the 1-1 result.
“I think 1-1 was probably a fair result. I felt that in the second half they pinned us back and changed their shape a little bit with a three-diamond-three and it caused us a lot of problems,” Ferguson said.
“We sort of struggled with that in the early part of the second half and they probably had a few good chances, but Tando Velaphi for us was excellent with some fantastic saves. We still created some chances towards the end and Scott Neville was unlucky with a couple of half chances, but it was probably a fair result.”
The Glory now remain at home to take on the Central Coast Mariners on Wednesday night, but in the meantime Ferguson will be negotiating the potential departure of veteran defender Andy Todd during the transfer window.
“I’m probably not in a position to comment on that at the moment because I don’t really know. There is something we need to clear first before we can announce anything,” he said.
“He has spoken to the deputy chairman Lui Giuliani and he’s dealing with it at this moment, and I will actually speak with him after the game to see what’s happening.”
