Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has urged fans not to pay attention to the raw numbers of Sunday’s 4-1 loss at the hands of the Queensland Roar and instead focus on a performance that in no way was reflected by the scoreboard.
Mitchell was understandably disappointed by a result that came after the Glory had been the best side for most of the opening 45 minutes, only to see the Roar score twice in first-half stoppage time.
But he also took encouragement from the fact that, with a little more luck, the Glory could actually have been a couple of goals to the good at half-time.
A tricky, skidding bounce possibly prevented Jamie Harnwell scoring in the seventh minute, while Roar keeper Liam Reddy denied Adrian Trinidad later in the half with a superb save.
“I actually said in the dressing room people who weren’t here would probably say we got battered 4-1 by Queensland. But that’s not the case,” Mitchell said.
“It’s disappointing but we had great support (from traveling fans) and they’ll go back and tell the legions that it was a great performance. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up now and win the next couple of games at home and give ourselves a chance again.”
Mitchell said the two-minute, two-goal burst by the Roar late in the first half had deflated his charges but he was pleased with the way they fought the game out.
A Sergio van Dijk penalty in the 46th minute was followed by a Tahj Minniecon tap-in in the 48th minute, before Charlie Miller unleashed a wonder strike for the Roar 11 minutes after the re-start.
“When you’re chasing the game you are going to leave yourself open,” Mitchell explained.
“If we’d gone to half-time 0-0, we would have come out with a bit more confidence and they probably wouldn’t have scored that (Miller’s) goal and it would have been a different game.”
“But we always say that goals change games and that’s exactly what happened to us.”
“I still think the boys applied themselves well. We got a goal back and had a run at them for 10 or 15 minutes, then it sort of just started to peter out a little bit.”
