Sydney FC striker Alex Brosque insists the Sky Blues’ mini-revival can be bankrolled into a full-blown finals resurrection after a 2-0 win over Perth on Sunday kept the dream alive for at least another week.
At the half-way mark of the season the defending champions sit a distant 10th on the table but only four points outside the top six.
After such a dreadful start to their campaign – winless after 10 rounds – it’s a minor miracle there is any life left in Sydney’s season.
But shortly after scoring his side’s second goal in the unconvincing win over luckless Perth, Brosque boldly declared the play-offs in reach.
“If you look at the last five games we’ve picked up a fair few points (10 from 15), so there is belief within the team that we can go on and have a go at it,” he said.
“Obviously the ladder doesn’t lie and we’re there for a reason at the moment.”
“We didn’t start well but there is that belief that if we can pick up another win next week the confidence continues to grow.”
“Around the park we do have the quality, it’s just consistently getting it together every week.”
It didn’t look like coming together for the Sky Blues until it was almost too late against Glory.
Shannon Cole’s classy finish in the 75th minute was followed up by Brosque’s match-sealer five minutes later and all was good in the Sky Blues’ world.
It wasn’t pretty or compelling viewing but the job got done, with Brosque happy for the win to overshadow his 100th A-League appearance and goal.
“To get a goal is always good but I think for the team, more importantly, we needed the points and it’s good to have got them,” he said.
Perth coach Ian Ferguson was disappointed with the late collapse, especially the manner in which the goals were conceded.
But he could find no fault with his side’s commitment to the cause.
“We’re letting ourselves down a little bit but the effort the boys gave to the game was fantastic,” the Glory boss said.
“We just didn-t have the killer punch.”
“We’ll try and get the boys confident again and pick them up a little bit even though they are little deflated.”
“We’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves…cut out the silly mistakes that are costing us big time.”
