Perth Glory hat-trick hero Robbie Fowler says the club can’t get carried away with their win over Melbourne Victory.
Fowler’s three goals in the 13th, 54th and 61st minute delivered Perth their first win in 11 games as the Glory stunned the highly-fancied Melbourne Victory with a 3-1 victory at nib Stadium on Sunday evening.
“It’s nice scoring goals,” Fowler said. “But ultimately, the most important thing is the three points.”
“Today we’ve come out and took it to Melbourne and I think we fully deserved to win, all credit to the boys.”
“From the ‘keeper to Michael Baird up front, I think everyone played the part.”
“It’s a great win, but it’s one win in 10, so lets not get carried away and hopefully we can take this result and, you know, put it to use in the next game.”
Perth interim coach Ian Ferguson was relieved to see his side deliver their first win since he took charge seven games ago when Dave Mitchell stepped aside.
Ferguson felt his side had been building up to a big performance over the past three matches since being belted by Central Coast 5-0.
But for all their endeavour in those games, the Glory simply could not hit the back of the net, their record of having scored just twice in the 10 games prior to this one a major factor in their form slump.
Ferguson’s previously said if Perth simply scored and took the lead, he felt they could go on with the job and get that elusive win.
But the coach admitted his heart was in his mouth in the 13th minute as Fowler was forced to net the rebound after his initial penalty was well saved by Melbourne’s Michael Petkovic.
“It wasn’t the greatest of penalties,” Ferguson said.
“I just felt my heart twinge a little bit when I’ve seen him running in trying to hit the rebound in.”
“I’m just delighted to get the monkey off the back and get my first win, which was nice.”
“Every emotion under the sun was going through me at the moment, (so it was) just nice to hear that whistle.”
“I’m pleased for the boys and pleased for the club as well, it was a fantastic effort today and I was really proud of every one of them.”
“I don’t think it was a massive turnaround (in form),” he added.
“I think the boys have played well in recent games. We just couldn’t score and we gave away silly goals.”
“(So) I don’t want to get carried away, it’s my first victory, the boys have done great and we’ll enjoy it, but we’ve got a lot of work still to do.”
