A week off hasn’t helped Perth Glory’s chances of a season-reviving win on Sunday against Central Coast with Todd Howarth, Jacob Burns and Andy Todd out injured, but interim coach Ian Ferguson is confident the rot will soon be over.
Adding to the week of misery was news that back-up goalkeeper Aleks Vrteski has been released from the final months of his contract to sign a deal with Indonesian Premier League club Solo FC.
While frustrated, Ferguson is still looking at the positives and is hopeful the replacements for the key players would make the most of the opportunities.
In-form Central Coast are fourth on the table and beat Perth 5-0 at home on October 30.
The Glory have won once in the 14 games since September 5.
“We’ve picked up a few knocks and niggles again unfortunately in training, and it’s not a great preparation but it’s something we have to deal with and just get on with it. It’s not a great preparation 24 hours out from the game,” Ferguson said before training on Friday.
“Jacob has a hip problem and he has a little tear in it, and he’s seen the specialist and it doesn’t look good at this moment. Howarth nicked something in his knee when he tried to control the ball the other day and he’s tweaked something there,” he said.
“The prognosis for him for the game doesn’t look good. We are at bare essentials, it’s as simple as that. It does present opportunities for everyone else, though, and I don’t want to dwell on it or make excuses. There’s 23 players here and everybody will get a chance.”
The Glory have slipped to 10th on the A-League table just a point ahead of bottom-placed North Queensland but worryingly have played two more matches than the Fury. With a negative 15 goal difference also, Ferguson knows that time is now running heart for the Glory to revive their season.
That task is harder against an in-form Mariners, but he’s confident it can happen on Sunday at nib Stadium.
“The chances are slipping away. We’ve got to get ourselves out of it and it’s the same things that we keep saying. We’ve got to get results and the home games especially are very important for us,” Ferguson said.
“Their confidence is sky high, they won the last game by five goals, but we are at home and I want to make this place a fortress like it was last year when they lost only one game.
“We have to get back to that siege mentality and make sure that we make it difficult for teams, and also let them have some problems from us.”
Glory defender Jamie Coyne also is under no illusion that time is running out for the Glory to start winning and he’s now looking to get points from Sunday’s game then also against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park next Saturday and then at home to Adelaide the following Wednesday.
“We are five points from the top-six so that’s our focus and we can’t look any higher. We’ve got three games before Christmas and we have to get a couple of results,” Coyne said.
“I’m not going to say that this game is the be all and end all, but obviously before Christmas we probably need five points and that would be great. Getting a win this weekend would be really important to start that out on a positive note.”
