Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson says there’s no reason for his side to panic despite suffering consecutive losses as they’re still a few weeks away from reaching their peak.
After starting the season with three wins from three games, the Glory lost to Central Coast and Newcastle on their New South Wales road-trip and will be desperate to get back to their winning ways when they host Sydney FC on Saturday night.
But Ferguson said there were plenty of pleasing aspects to come out of the two losses, including his side’s improved character.
The coach said that made him confident Perth could avoid a similar losing run to the one that plagued them last season, where they won just two of their last 25 matches after making a strong start.
“You will have the people saying it’s the same thing happening again and we’re letting ourselves down. But they were two hard trips, you’ve got to remember that,” he said.
“The more positive spin on it is we’ve played five games and we’ve won three. That’s what we’ve got to focus on and be a bit more positive.”
“I think you’ll see the best of this team around Rounds 10, 11 or 12 and that’s where we’ll start to gel. So it’s great to have the points on the board at the moment, but I think this is where you’ll see the strong side come out.”
Ferguson said the squad’s strong mental character was evident in a heated half-time exchange between players in the Newcastle match, which he said was pleasing to see.
“Last year we never had that. Everyone would come in and sit in silence and I think there was only one player who would come in and speak his mind and that was Jacob Burns,” he said.
“This year you’ve got five or six strong characters in there that know we can do better and know if something goes wrong on the park they can fix it.”
“I don’t mind it. We’re all big enough and ugly enough to take it on the chin.”
But Ferguson admitted the way Perth performed at times against the Mariners and Jets was unacceptable and they would have to refine areas of their game to take the three points against the in-form Sky Blues.
“The start of the game last week (in the 2-0 loss to the Jets) was very disappointing and we can’t do that again,” he said.
“The other one was retaining the ball and decision making, which has been pretty poor at times.”
He said their focus against Sydney will be on playing fewer long balls and trying to work the ball up the pitch through wide areas.
