Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson felt his team had done enough to warrant at least a share of the spoils after going down 1-0 to a late goal from Wellington Phoenix defender Ben Sigmund at Westpac Stadium on Saturday.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson felt his team had done enough to warrant at least a share of the spoils after going down 1-0 to a late goal from Wellington Phoenix defender Ben Sigmund at Westpac Stadium on Saturday.
Sigmund headed home a Leo Bertos corner kick in the 85th minute to snatch the three points from a scrappy and sometimes bad-tempered match that saw Wellington reduced to 10 men when substitute Mirjan Pavlovic was sent off deep into stoppage time.
Perth had two good chances early on but Liam Miller and Josh Mitchell couldn’t convert.
Ferguson also felt Glory had a clear-cut penalty shout when Vince Lia handled the ball in the area after Miller’s attempt had come back off Tony Lochhead.
“It was a clear handball. Everybody sees it but for some reason Perth Glory don’t seem to be getting any penalties recently,” said a disappointed Ferguson.
“But the effort that the boys put in was tremendous.”
“To come away with a loss I’m very disappointed because I thought they put a great amount of effort into the game.”
Captain Jacob Burns admitted to some frustration with referee Ryan Shepheard who booked Wellington players Paul Ifill, Lochhead and Tim Brown in the first half then Glory duo Todd Howarth and Josh Mitchell after the break before showing Pavlovic a straight red card.
“Decisions don’t always go your way but I think both teams were a little disappointed with the consistency,” Burns said.
“I thought we did enough to get something out of the game today. The boys played fantastic.”
“We controlled the first half. Wellington came out in the second half and made it difficult for us but on another day, a couple of decisions go our way, and we could have been coming away with all the points.”
Goalkeeper Danny Vukovic sent a scare through the side when he hurt his left ankle early in the second half. He received treatment on the pitch and lasted the full game, even getting himself up in the Phoenix box late on and attempting a bicycle kick for goal as Perth pressed for the equaliser.
Ferguson was hopeful his keeper would be fit for Perth’s game against Melbourne Heart next week.
“We’ll have a look at him in the next 24 hours. He’ll get a scan. We’ll let it settle,” said the coach.
“But he should be okay, hopefully.”
The Scotsman was also upbeat about the chances of Travis Dodd and Evan Berger returning to action and dismissed suggestions that injuries were taking a toll given the recent run of results.
“I don’t think it’s affected us too much. I think we’ve been playing some decent stuff,” Ferguson said.
“We’ve been playing some good stuff in certain games. I know the Roar game was very disappointing and they (the players) knew that as well.”
“But apart from that we’ve been in there in games. There has been no team that has steamrolled us apart from Brisbane. The boys have always been there or thereabouts.”
“The disappointing thing today is that the effort and the commitment that they put in … to lose to a set-piece and to lose late on as well was very hard.”
