Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson was delighted with the response his players showed in the 2-0 victory over Adelaide on Thursday night after suffering a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Brisbane Roar last week.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson was delighted with the response his players showed in the 2-0 victory over Adelaide United on Thursday night after suffering a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Brisbane Roar last week.
Perth found the opener on six minutes when busting centre forward Billy Mehmet fired home Travis Dodd’s sublime cross, although replays later suggested the Englishman was offside.
Glory captain and former Socceroo struck another in the 24th minute with a well taken left-foot half-volley.
Tempers boiled over in the second half when Perth defender Steve Pantelidis was caught behind play by Adelaide midfielder Fabian Barbiero who subsequently received a straight red card.
The Glory held on however for a vital three points that lifts the club momentarily into third spot for a home final chance with fourth placed Wellington Phoenix to play on Sunday.
Ferguson praised the response his side have shown in the ‘business end’ of the season.
“We got nothing home against Brisbane and to bounce back in the manner that we did was excellent,” Ferguson said.
“We mentioned before the game that three points would obviously put us back into the top three, so to get them is tremendous.”
“To win as many games as we have in the business end has been really good and we’ve been delighted with the reaction we have had in these last 10 games.”
“The squad is running along nicely.
Perth goalkeeper Danny Vukovic who also found himself embroiled in a heated stoush with Reds defender and former Central Coast Mariners teammate Nigel Boogaard, said the self-belief amongst the squad was at a high heading into the finals.
“Confidence is good within the camp at the moment and it was important for us to bounce back after we had a bit of an off day against Brisbane last week,” Vukovic said.
“We have home games coming up so we’re always confident playing in front of our fans.”
“We are confident that we can grab a home final and push on through the finals.”
In a match tainted with controversy following Mehmet’s offside goal, Adelaide’s disallowed effort after Boogaard was suspected to have fouled Vukovic and Barbiero’s red card, Ferguson admitted his side rode their luck.
The Scotsman refused to comment on the incidents, although he admitted he could understand Adelaide coach John Kosmina’s frustration with the officiating.
“We rode our luck a little bit with a couple of decisions but like I’ve said before we were getting absolutely nothing in the beginning of the season,” Ferguson said.
“John (Kosmina) has every right to be annoyed but at the end of the day we came here hoping to try and get three points, we got them, and I’m not going to slag the referee because he’s made some bad decisions.”
“We all cop it at times and we’ve got to take it, so we can’t complain too much and just need to focus ahead.”
