Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson says he’s feeling the pinch as his side’s sixth loss from the last eight games increases the pressure on his job.
Speaking after Mate Dugandzic’s 87th-minute header sealed a 2-1 away win for Melbourne Heart over Glory on Saturday night, a forthright Ferguson refused to shy away from the fact the pressure is certainly mounting on himself and his squad.
“I’m pretty flat at the moment to be honest,” Ferguson said.
“At the end of the day I’m not going to sit here and lie, we’re in a business that you know, you live by and die by results and at this moment of time, the results are not going for us.”
“It’s still closely congested,” he added referring to the fact Perth could have climbed into fourth on the Hyundai A-League table with a win, but now find themselves in seventh and possibly eighth by the end of the round if Melbourne Victory defeat Wellington on Sunday.
“But it’s not good enough losing your home games; these are the games you’ve got to win.”
“At the beginning of the season, I wanted to make nib (Stadium) a fortress and try and make it very difficult for teams to come here.”
“So that’s two games I’ve lost now at home. Again we’ll go back to the drawing board and we’ll have a chat to the players and try and get something out of this.”
Glory appeared the team most likely to take all three points after creating several opportunities during an open second half after Matt Thompson’s 33rd-minute goal for Heart was cancelled out by a classy finish from Billy Mehmet two minutes later.
But for the second week in a row, Glory conceded a winning goal during the last five minutes, having seen Ben Sigmund rise high in the 86th minute last weekend to nod Wellington Phoenix ahead in a 1-0 result at Westpac Stadium.
Ferguson said he was bitterly disappointed his players lost their concentration again at the death, along with being concerned about their level of play overall.
“I thought there was a nervousness about us tonight and I said that to them at half-time,” revealed Ferguson.
“The thing that we didn-t do well was move the ball quicker and at a quick tempo that I’d really like to play at, but they’re (Heart) a decent team.”
