Fury operations manager Robbie Middleby admitted his side was greatly affected by the plight of their fellow Queenslanders when they lost 1-0 to the Jets in Newcastle on Tuesday night.
The Fury took the field against the Jets for the second time in four days and, with no hope of making the finals, Middleby admitted his side-s talk pre-match had been about devastating floods affecting the state.
“Today has been a pretty hectic day to be honest,” he said after the match. “With the game and with everything going on up there in Queensland and everything going on with the club.”
“Nothing direct with the players but we are all very attached to Queensland with what is going on up there at the moment. But certainly friends in Queensland have been affected so it is hard to deal with for a lot of them.”
“I thought it was brilliant character shown by the players and we were missing some key payers including David Williams out injured. I think the team performed exceptionally well and showed a lot of character in the second half. It was a good effort.”
Fury head coach Franz Starka, who was too emotional to talk to the media after the match, continued with his rotation policy by bringing in a number of players into the starting line-up including Gareth Edds, Jason Spagnuolo, Chris Grossman and Brett Studman and the disruption to the fluidity showed as the Jets dominated proceedings and were unlucky to have more than a 1-0 lead at half-time.
However, with a few personnel changes at the break the North Queensland side clawed their way back into he contest, and put the Jets under some real pressure but ultimately failed to grab an equaliser.
“I thought if we had that killer instinct up front or that final deliver we may got there,” Middleby said. “We pushed Eric Akoto up front hoping that it might spark something up there.”
“But I think it has been the same story all season – we have created some chances but not finished them off which is disappointing.”
Key defender Mark Hughes agreed.
“When you are 1-0 down you have nothing to lose and we pushed forward. As Robbie said just that final ball could have created a few things up front. But we tried everything to get a gaol but it wasn-t meant to be.”
One bright part for the Fury was the performance on young goal-keeper Sebastian Usai, who was playing in just his second A-League match after making an inauspicious debut last Saturday against the Jets.
This time however, the 20-year-old shot stopper made a number of heroic saves to keep his side in the contest.
“I thought he was outstanding tonight,” Middleby said. “It is fabulous for a young keeper like that to get a chance.”
“In the circumstances that we are in it is great to give a young player an opportunity to show what he can do for next season.
“It was great for his confidence and credit to the players to stick by the club in the situation we are in.”
