Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson said it was a case of mixed emotions coming away with a 3-3 draw with Brisbane, despite his side producing some of their best football this season.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson said it was a case of mixed emotions coming away with a 3-3 draw with Brisbane, despite his side producing some of their best football this season.
Glory went two goals ahead in the first 24 minutes as Travis Dodd and a Mile Sterjovski thunderbolt stunned the reigning premiers.
But having taken the lead, Perth couldn’t make it count as Mitch Nichols pulled one back with a cracking long-range strike before a couple of poor defensive errors allowed Brisbane to take the lead by the 69th minute.
However, despite being highly critical of the defending, Ferguson was rapt his side never wavered in their attack on Brisbane’s goal as they were eventually rewarded with an 80th-minute penalty, converted with aplomb by Sterjovski.
“The boys were outstanding,” declared Ferguson. “In football terms, that’s the best I’ve seen them.”
“They took the game to Brisbane and they played really well.”
“To go 3-2 down, it showed character for the boys to keep going.”
“They showed it (that character) last week and showed it again this week so the most pleasing thing is still going on to create chances and get the penalty.”
Although his undermanned back four lost another experienced campaigner on the eve of this game as Bas van den Brink suffered a hamstring injury, Ferguson wouldn’t use the chopping and changing in his back four as an excuse for more defensive lapses.
And, the coach was clearly still annoyed by the third goal his side conceded in the 69th minute, as a long-ball over the top allowed Nichols to run onto the ball and chip it home over Danny Vukovic, who was slow to sense the danger and come off his line.
“Danny sort of held his hand up as well and he’s taken the blame,” Ferguson said.
“He apologised to the boys when he came in at full time.”
“(But) they (his centre-backs) should still know their basic defending,” Ferguson added.
“If one goes in, one’s got to drop (back) and that’s what probably hurt us a little bit, we were caught square.”
Ferguson said it was too early to tell the extent of Billy Mehmet’s calf injury. The in-form striker was under no pressure when he propped awkwardly and fell to the ground in plenty of pain during the 82nd minute.
Ferguson is hopeful it was simply a severe case of cramp but acknowledged it could be worse, meaning the Glory could be desperately short of striking options for Sunday’s clash in Wellington.
