Perth coach Ian Ferguson is delighted that luck finally seems to be going Glory’s way after a second successive away win, this time over Melbourne Heart, saw them climb back into the top six.
Perth coach Ian Ferguson is delighted that luck finally seems to be going Glory’s way after a second successive away win, this time over Melbourne Heart, saw them climb back into the top six.
Glory were in a real trough just before Christmas, having lost three games in a row and were in danger of losing touch with the race for the finals.
But a four-game unbeaten streak, including the club’s first back-to-back away wins in two-and-a-half years, has seen Perth move to fifth.
The sudden turn in form, Glory’s best four-match run since the start of last season, is as much about things going Ferguson’s team’s way as it has been a change in the quality of play according to the coach.
“I’ve never felt as though we weren’t playing good football, I just felt we weren’t getting the rub of the green and the little breaks and this time we are. Over the last four or five weeks, we have been getting things,” he said.
“It’s made a huge difference, we’ve been getting the wins, which is great, but the football we’ve been playing is still the same football. We’ve always been playing reasonably well.”
“It’s great that we’ve had these four games unbeaten. It has given that bit of confidence. We’ve won the last two away from home and we also drew away at Newcastle.”
Ferguson admitted that Sunday’s 2-1 win over Heart had its share of frustrating moments, especially when his team had dominated the attacking chances for the first hour, only to see the home side equalise on 66 minutes.
“At times, we need to be a little bit more clinical, to finish teams off. They are always going to be in it at 1-0. We could easily have scored three of four,” he said after he watched Shane Smeltz and Travis Dodd miss gettable chances in the first half.
However, the luck returned to Perth just two minutes after the scores were levelled. A speculative shot by Mile Sterjovski saw Heart keeper Clint Bolton fumble, and that allowed Glory to find a deserved winner.
“Credit to the boys, they pushed on, and we got a bit of a break again, Clint drops the ball and Steve McGarry is there to put it away,” he said.
“We’re getting the little breaks that we never got until the last four or five weeks. It has made a little bit of difference.”
Ferguson now has the challenge of preparing his in-form side for yet another away trip, this time against Sydney in Campbelltown on Wednesday.
He expects to make a couple of changes with a few of his players struggling to back up on a three-day turnaround.
“We’ve got a couple of niggles at the moment, so we will have to see, our youth team plays (on Monday) and we may have to call one or two of them in, depending on what the next 24 hours hold,” he said.
