Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell was determined to take the positives from his side’s 5-0 loss to Fulham on Wednesday night.
The squally showers sweeping Members Equity Stadium may have rained on the Glory’s parade somewhat against the English Premiership side, but it didn’t stop Cottagers striker Erik Nevland burying a second-half hat-trick in eight minutes.
Andrew Johnson may have scored for Fulham in the 16th minute but the Glory’s defence proved resolute from then on until Nevland opened his account on the hour, with Andranik chipping in to add some extra polish with seven minutes to play.
Mitchell, though, was proud of his side’s defensive effort for 45 minutes but knew Fulham’s pressure would eventually take its toll against a team still gelling together after a succession of pre-season inclusions.
“I thought the first half we did ever so well,” Mitchell said.
“(But) it looked like they put the foot down the second half and really came at us and they should, they’re a quality side.”
“The last 20, 25 minutes we got spread out a little bit. They played balls in between us and they’re very quick and I don’t expect to compete at that level week in, week out.”
“Obviously once they’ve scored one or two goals our heads drop a little bit and they get the confidence and they just showed they’re a class act.”
“They’re in Europe in two weeks time and they will go to Europe and I think they’ll do quite well in the early stages.”
Mitchell was confident there wouldn’t be any lingering psychological effects on his side, saying Fulham’s ability to shut down attacks and promising runs into the area was what his side would aspire to.
“We’re still a new team blending. We’ve still got a few players we’re going to blend in there and have a look at but from a point of view it was a good exercise and we’ll learn lots from that.”
“The amount of pressure they put on you was tremendous and we’ve just got to be a little bit better to probably get out of that and that’s how you learn, you learn from games and that’s exactly what we did tonight.”
Mitchell said he was looking forward to giving new signings Chris Coyne and Branko Jelic a run when the Glory take on North Queensland on Saturday in a pre-season clash at Mandurah, south of Perth.
Qantas Socceroo Coyne only arrived from the UK last Sunday and was not ready to play against Fulham, while former Energie Cottbus striker Jelic almost made it over the line fitness-wise but Mitchell opted not to press him.
