Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson believes where there’s life, there is still an A-League finals hope for the embattled club.
Glory’s 2-0 away defeat to Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park means Perth languishes behind North Queensland Fury and Sydney FC at the bottom of the HAL table.
The loss stretches Perth’s record to just one win from their past 16 matches, but when questioned whether he thought it was time to write off any chance of a finals appearance in season 2010-11, Ferguson responded.
“I think until it’s mathematically impossible (to make the finals), we’ll still keep going the best we can,” Ferguson said.
“We’ve still got five home games to go and if we can play the way we played in the first half (against Victory), hopefully we can take some points.”
“I keep saying it, there’s no magic formula. We’ve got to keep believing in ourselves.”
“We’ve had a lot of changes through injury and suspension, so there hasn’t been the continuity and consistency (we would have liked) there.”
Glory illustrated why they boast such an impressive overall record against the Victory with a spirited first-half display inspired by rising star Scott Neville and a compact defence marshalled by the impressive Josh Mitchell.
But as has been the case for Glory this season, they concede goals at the most inopportune times and did so with the final kick of the opening stanza, in the third minute of stoppage time, by Archie Thompson.
A 63rd minute header from Rody Vargas put the icing on the cake for Victory to inflict even more concern for the Scotsman.
“Overall, I think the boys competed well, we showed some good stuff at times and the first 45 minutes was the best we’ve played in a long time,” he said.
“But the thing that disappoints me is the goal going in injury time and then (conceding) the set piece.”
“Unfortunately we were 15 seconds over the time for the first goal, but we should be clever enough and smart enough to see the half out – we didn’t and that’s disappointing.”
Neville and Mitchell provided a bright spot for Ferguson, particularly Neville who impressed at right midfield before a reshuffle caused by an injury suffered by teenage defender Josh Risdon, saw him finish the game at right-back.
“I thought he (Neville) was outstanding for us in the first-half, he was causing Kempy (Matthew Kemp) a few problems down the right side before he went off and when they put (Marvin) Angulo there, Scott was getting a lot of joy down that right flank,” he said.
“Unfortunately for us, we got an injury early in the second-half and he had to shift to right-back, it took a lot of momentum from us going forward.”
Next on Perth’s agenda is a visit from second-placed Adelaide United.
