North Queensland Fury coach Ian Ferguson believes a more mature line up is the key to overcoming Melbourne in their Round 3 Hyundai A-League encounter at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday night.
Ferguson has promised he’ll swing the axe following the Fury’s demoralising 5-0 loss to the Gold Coast.
“Yes, I’d definitely say there’s going to be a few changes,” Ferguson said.
“It’s going to be a more experienced team because … we need some older heads, wiser and calmer people out there instead of the young kids running about.”
North Queensland will be bolstered in that regard by the return of 33-year-old midfielder Ufuk Talay from a long-term calf injury, while vice-captain Robbie Middleby will also line up after being cleared of a serious foot problem.
“He’s come up fine,” Ferguson said.
“He was clearing his lines and somebody’s followed through and hit his boot with his stud, they’re always sore ones you just can never tell how quickly they’re going to heal or how bad they are.”
“That’s exactly what happened to Scott Wilson and he’s out for eight weeks,” he said.
But the former Scottish international was keeping quiet on the make up of the remainder of the side.
“We’ve got a fair idea but … injuries happen,” Ferguson said.
“I don’t want to take that chance, I don’t want to say this one’s in and that one’s in and then all of a sudden they’re not there,’ he said.
But he did hint at forging a new partnership up front combining the muscle of Daniel McBreen and the finesse of Robbie Fowler.
“When Daniel first came into my thoughts signing him, that was exactly the partnership I thought of,” he said.
“The big bustley boy and Robbie being the more skillful one, but it’s never materialised that way. We’ve always had a few problems we’ve never had the personnel to put on but now we’ve got that opportunity.”
The fledgling club is still hurting from its embarrassing last start thrashing, but the players and coaching staff are keeping high spirits.
“There’s no use moping about it, it’s happened,” Ferguson said.
“It’s something we’ve got to work on and get over … it was a bad day at the office basically and everybody has one. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and go again.”
