Despite being on the wrong end of a loss to Central Coast, Perth Glory interim coach Ian Ferguson says he remains proud of his team’s fight back after a disastrous early period where his side conceded two goals and went down to 10 men.
The Glory’s night turned into a horror show between the 22nd and 28th minute mark of Wednesday’s clash with the Mariners, beginning with a Central Coast goal to Daniel McBreen that was followed by another to Matt Simon before a penalty was awarded against the Perth side.
Tando Velaphi pulled off a great save to avoid the Glory slipping 3-0 down, but then veteran Jamie Harnwell received a red card. Despite all of that, the Glory stuck at their task well, pulled a goal back in the 38th minute through Todd Howarth and were marginally the better team in the second half.
That was a source of pride for Ferguson even if the loss leaves means Perth’s finals hopes are all but over this season.
“I was actually thinking that it was going to get embarrassing at one point when they had scored two quick goals and got a penalty straight after that,” said Ferguson.
“Credit to the boys, though, for digging deep and (the way they) kept fighting.”
“We could have tried to go 4-4-1 after going down a man, but we tried to be attacking and keep trying to put them under pressure. I felt that from just before we got the goal that we really started to play.”
“We created one or two chances and even (Adam) Taggart came on at the end and had two strikes. Unfortunately they didn’t go in, but we were close to stealing something after it could have been an embarrassing night. We brought back a bit of credibility into the game.”
Ferguson has been impressed with the efforts of his team and their attitude ever since he took over the helm from Dave Mitchell.
“The character over the last 12 weeks I can’t fault and I’ve said that since I’ve taken over,” he said.
“The character of the boys has been fantastic and their attitude has been first class. We just aren’t getting the rub of the green at the moment and everything seems to be going against us.”
Another positive out of the game for the Glory was the surprise return of former Dutch international Victor Sikora for his first game of the season after hip problems. He came on late in the second half and showed some good creative signs.
“We weren’t expecting anything from Victor this season but he went in for the operation and it seemed to clear a lot of things up. He’s trained the last couple of weeks, which was great, and just throwing him in there I thought he could maybe try and do something for us,” Ferguson said.
“He’s a livewire, one of the characters in the dressing room and it’s about trying to get him back into the fold as quickly as possible. We’ve definitely missed what he can bring.”
Ferguson couldn’t give much of his view on Harnwell’s red card in the 28th minute, but said he wasn’t impressed with the second yellow that Adriano Pellegrino received in the last seconds of the match.
That means both players will be unavailable to play Wellington Phoenix on Sunday in New Zealand.
“I’ve not seen the send off with Jamie Harnwell so I can’t comment on that, but it did look like it was just a clash. I thought the two of them were going for the ball, but I had no angle on it and I don’t know what happened,” he said.
“The next minute I saw the red card and he was off.”
“It’s a massive blow to lose two of my top players and we’ve got a casualty ward as well, which is not great. We’ll go and play the game with whatever squad we’ve got and go and try our best.”
