Perth coach Dave Mitchell was left disappointed by his side’s lethargic effort as a 1-1 draw with 10-man North Queensland prevented the Glory climbing atop the Hyundai A-League table.
The Glory appeared to have everything going for them as Ufuk Talay received a second yellow card for simulation just before the break, before Mile Sterjovski fired his side into the lead by earning and converting a 49th-minute penalty.
But as Perth seemed increasingly content to merely protect the lead, North Queensland returned fire in the 70th minute through an own goal to Glory goalkeeper Tando Velaphi.
Mitchell said he was especially disappointed his side couldn’t muster a response over the last 20 minutes, despite playing with an extra man.
“We were controlling the game,” Mitchell said.
“They weren’t causing us many problems and yeah, it’s disappointing the way the goal happened but then we didn’t have that spark to regenerate and create another goal, so that’s the annoying part from my point.”
“That’s where we’ve got to be good enough to take the challenge and take it to the next level and create opportunities, (but) we didn’t.”
“There’s a situation where we’ve been really training hard … and is there something we’re leaving on the training field? So that’s something we’re going to have a look at but we looked a little bit flat and our passing wasn’t good,” he said.
Mitchell also refused to lay any blame for the goal on Velaphi, saying it was a different scenario to the uncharacteristic mistake he made against Central Coast in Round 5, when he overshot a long ball forward and allowed the Mariners to score a 90th-minute winner.
“The blunder against the Mariners, that was just a mistake and that was unfortunate but these things happen,” Mitchell said.
“In general, he’s been doing very well.”
