North Queensland Fury is calling on its back four to stand up against Sydney FC in Round 6 of the Hyundai A-League.
The club is still searching for its maiden victory after joining the competition this season.
The Fury has conceded 13 goals in their opening five games and it is time that stopped according to defender Shane Stefanutto.
“We have to keep a clean sheet,” he said.
“We haven’t done it this year yet, so I think it’s time to put a bit of pressure on us to hold it to nil and if we can do that I’m sure the boys up front will do the job for us.”
Paul Kohler’s suspension after receiving a red card in last week’s 1-1 draw with the Brisbane Roar has forced some unwanted disruption to the defensive line.
Though, it has been bolstered by the return of Stefanutto from Socceroos duties.
“(John) Tambouras will come in for Kohler; Stefanutto will go to left back for (Chris) Tadrosse and Tadrosse will move into the midfield,” coach Ian Ferguson said.
Despite the changes Stefanutto is confident the defensive wall will stand strong.
“Obviously it’s difficult when you have to bring new people into a back four, but I think John Tambouras will do a good job, we’ve trained together a lot this week, it’s looking very good,” he said.
“Let’s just hope we can bring that into the game.”
The Fury let Sydney get out to an early 2-0 lead when they met in Round 1 at Dairy Farmers Stadium, before fighting back to go down 3-2.
“They’re always an attacking side,” Ferguson said.
“They’ve got pace, they were great in their counter attack last time so that’s something we’re going to try and combat and hopefully we can go the other way and hit them on the counter attack.”
After stringing together two solid draws the Fury are travelling to Sydney Football Stadium with the belief they’re good enough to beat anyone.
“We’re definitely …a lot stronger than what we were five or six weeks ago, and looking forward to the challenge,” Ferguson said.
