North Queensland assistant coach Stuart McLaren believes Friday night’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Perth Glory is ample evidence rival Hyundai A-League clubs should write off the Fury at their own peril.
It may have been a pre-season of discontent at Dairy Farmers Stadium as former chairman Don Matheson withdrew his funding, leading to the club losing most of its playing roster as it was handed into administration.
But the Fury sent out a major statement on Friday night at to all those who had predicted a wooden spoon for the club this season.
Coming off one of the longest road-trips in world football and having conceded a goal to Perth in the first five minutes, North Queensland refused to buckle and instead went ahead through classy finishes by young stars Chris Payne and David Williams.
They almost made it 3-1 when Adam Casey sent a header narrowly wide of the upright, and the miss hurt badly when the Glory returned fire through Scott Neville and Mile Sterjovski goals.
But, with the odds stacked against them deep into injury time in front of a hostile crowd, a last-ditch Isaka Cernak attack produced a free kick just in from the left corner flag that allowed Chris Grossman to power home a 92nd-minute equaliser.
The goal sparked jubilant scenes on the bench from newly signed coach Franz Straka and the substitutes, revealing just what any type of result meant for the Hyundai A-League underdogs.
But speaking after the game, assistant McLaren declared the Fury would not be content with just brave draws this season.
“Obviously happy that we managed to snatch it back but the fact is we should never have been in that position in the first place,” McLaren, a former Glory defender, said.
“You get your nose in front with what 20 minutes to go, even had a good chance to go 3-1 up, Adam Casey’s free header, it’s just a little bit frustrating for us that we were in that situation, chasing an equaliser.”
“At the same time, after being 1-0 down early in the game, that could have really rocked us, but the boys I think stood up quite well, got themselves back into it at half-time and then again at the end.”
“It was a good show of character to chase the game right to the death and I think we fully deserved a share of the spoils today.”
“I think the message is quite clear that we’re going to be far more competitive than most people have given us any credit for,” he said.
McLaren refused to say the club was finding strength through adversity and instead felt the character shown was the end result of good recruiting and possibly flying under the radar a little.
“We think we’ve got a good squad, there is some quality in there but the real strength that we are going to need to rely upon week in, week out is that togetherness,” McLaren said.
“I think our recruiting process has been very thorough as well and aside from trying to sign footballers with the right quality and footballers who will give the squad an even balance, we’ve tried to sign good professionals.”
“Good characters, people who won’t upset the environment we’ve got in the dressing room and that’s something we’re going to need to rely on through different points of the season, we did tonight and it’s come up trumps for us.”
