Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson said that while he was frustrated with the 2-0 loss to the Jets on Saturday night there were still plenty of positives to take out of the match.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson said that while he was frustrated with the 2-0 loss to the Jets on Saturday night there were still plenty of positives to take out of the match.
Glory seemed shell-shocked early by the effervescent pressing game of the Jets and found themselves trailing 2-0 after 11 minutes due to two quality goals from Kiwi international Jeremy Brockie.
Perth worked their way back into the contest in the second half but couldn’t find the back of the net as they slipped to their second straight defeat.
“It was very disappointing the manner we started the game – it was a real shock for us,” Ferguson said after the match.
“We knew they would come at us and we talked about the fact they would come at us, but it was very disappointing that we didn’t handle that. But after the start I felt it was a pretty even game.”
Ferguson said his frustration wasn’t because of the pressing game of the Jets but more the fact that his side took a while to click into gear.
“I wanted the guys to go out there and play our style of football which you saw in the second half. It was a lot better but we didn’t do that in the first half,” he said.
“It took us about 15 to 20 minutes to get into the game and by that time we were 2-0 down.”
“We looked like we didn’t have any urgency – we looked lacklustre. And when we got into the sheds at half-time I let them know in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t good enough. And to their credit I had a great reaction from the boys – they played a lot better in the second half.”
Ferguson made a couple of tactical changes at half-time, brining on Andrezinho and Josh Mitchell and the pair created a number of opportunities down the left flank for the Glory in the second stanza.
“Even though it is a 2-0 defeat we will take some positives out of it,” Ferguson said.
“I thought Josh Mitchell did very well as did Andrezinho and I thought Liam Miller did well when we changed to 4-4-2.”
“People have to remember that we are the team that has probably had the most turnover in players. And we are trying to find the balance, we are trying to find the shape, we are trying to find the right combination of personnel that will do the business for us.”
“We are not far off. If you saw in the second half, we are not far away.”
Ferguson also said he would review the team tactic of staying on the Central Coast for the week after last week’s match against the Mariners rather than traveling back home to Perth in between games.
“There were a lot of positives out of it. One was that we didn-t travel and two was that we got all our sessions in,” he said.
“But the downside of that is that you stay in a hotel with the family and kids for a week. So we will look closely into that.”
“If you are asking me would we do it again I would probably say no at this point in time.”
