Perth Glory have begun their tour of South Africa with a 1-0 friendly defeat to the Platinum Stars in Rustenburg on Wednesday.
At the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, the Glory impressed despite the defeat against the Stars, who are just 10 days away from the start of their South African Premier League season.
The only goal of the game came from a Stars free-kick in the first half but Glory boss Ian Ferguson was happy with the work-out his side received, stressing that the result was not overly important.
“Overall I was pleased,” Ferguson said.
“We still have a lot of work to do before the start of the season but this was a very good test. Obviously it’s nice to win but the focus is on conditioning the players for the Hyundai A-League season.”
“We got some good minutes into the players and it was another chance for team to gel.”
The match offered Ferguson the opportunity to have a look at some of the new members of his squad, with Evan Berger and Jesse Makarounas making their first appearances for the club in the match.
“We have eleven new faces at the club this season so the players need games to combine,” he said.
“It’s only the third time the likes of Shane Smeltz, Liam Miller and Travis Dodd have played together.”
Next up for Perth is a trip to the King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday to face AmaZulu FC.
