Perth Glory head coach Tony Popovic backed his side’s ability to score goals following Glory’s 0-0 draw with Adelaide United on Wednesday night.
Glory looked comfortable throughout the Hyundai A-League encounter and were unlucky not to steal all three points at the death, Joel Chianese inches away from latching onto a wicked cross.
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Interestingly, Perth have no failed to produce a goal in five of their last six halves of football, a stark contrast to their opening 13 games where they found the back of the net each time.
Despite this, Popovic affirmed this was no cause for concern.
“We get a point here, we got a point the other day in Melbourne — it’s a busy period for everyone,” said Popovic.
“We’ve come through unscathed, not our best performance with the ball but we’ve got to give credit to the opposition on that as well.
“In this period we looked very resilient in a game where our game didn’t really flow. I felt we were always dangerous and always a chance to score, although it wasn’t our best performance in possession.
“But that’s always a good sign when we feel like we can win matches when we’re not quite there.”
Both sides had chances to seal the win, though the longer the game went on, the longer it appeared likely to end in a stalemate.
While backing his side’s ability to produce goals, Popovic was honest about his side’s performance against Adelaide.
“We always thought it would come to one goal, if any, and unfortunately we couldn’t get it,” said Popovic.
“But we’re pleased to keep a clean sheet in a game where we didn’t really have any rhythm in the match — that’s credit to Adelaide as well, they didn’t really allow us to get a foothold of the game.
“At any moment we’re able to make a good combination where we can score.
“Jason (Davidson) had a chance from inside the box to finish it off, but unfortunately it just didn’t fall for us.
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What Adelaide lack in resources, they make up for in desire
Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz defended his side’s result against Pert, and appeared to hint at his side’s desire to take it to the bigger clubs.
The draw was a spirited result for Adelaide who have won two of their last four matches, including a 2-0 triumph over Melbourne Victory back in Round 12.
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These performances come in the context of a season where Adelaide appear to be on the precipice of consistency, though Kurz isn’t allowing budgetary restraints to limit his side’s ambitions.
“Our aim is to reach the Final, everybody knows we don’t have the same budget as many other clubs in above us, but we’re hungry for more (wins),” said Kurz.
“We have to perform each week.
“We have to perform against Central Coast (on Sunday) and at the end you must pick up points and then you have the chance to go higher.
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The Summer of Heroes threw some interesting challenges at the Hyundai A-League outfits.
Two games per week made for some thrilling action for fans and forced coaches to become industrious with their squad and game management.
Kurz made no excuses for his side’s performance against Perth, admitting there is still room for improvement.
“It’s a strong team, Perth, and I’m happy with the way we played because we played this lineup for the first time,” said Kurz.
“We had two sessions to train what we needed, what we wanted.
“You saw in the game we need time to improve.
“In the end we’re happy with a point but we have to do a lot of work in the future to make it much better.”
The Reds must back up their spirited draw on the league leaders’ turf with a peculiar clash against Central Coast Mariners.
The last time Adelaide faced the Mariners, a Craig Goodwin brace either side of half-time led the Reds to a 3-0 away win.
The Mariners are a different prospect to the one Adelaide faced earlier in the season, with Mike Mulvey’s side having since grabbed their first win of the campaign and snatching four points from their last three games.