Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson was happy to be on the right side of a 1-0 score line against Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium after watching Josh Mitchell head home a winner late in Sunday’s match.
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson was happy to be on the right side of a 1-0 score line against Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium after watching Josh Mitchell head home a winner late in Sunday’s match.
The last time the two teams met in Wellington in Round 10 Ben Sigmund headed home the winner for the Phoenix in the 85th minute to snatch all three points.
Mitchell left it even later to secure Perth’s first victory at Westpac Stadium but it was no more than the Glory deserved after outplaying the home side in the driving wind and rain.
They had three shots on target in the first half as Travis Dodd, Liam Miller and Steven McGarry forced saves from Tony Warner, while keeping the Phoenix chanceless.
Daniel, who had the best chance for Wellington, and Shane Smeltz both hit the woodwork in the second spell before Mitchell nodded home deep into stoppage time.
“We had to come here and try and get the three points and I thought the boys were outstanding,” said a delighted Ferguson, whose team ended a five-match winless streak.
“We wanted to play some good football. We wanted to get high up the park. We knew they had players that could hurt us if we stepped off them and gave them too much time.
“Our plan was to come here and stop those players and hopefully get our good players on the ball and I think that’s what happened. We got a good result.
“It was a six-pointer basically for us tonight in terms of being nine points or three points behind Wellington. That was a great incentive for the boys.”
The win may have come at a cost though with captain Jacob Burns forced from the pitch in the 83rd minute after suffering a thigh injury challenging for the ball with Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante.
“It’s come up in a big lump and it looks like a haematoma,” said Ferguson. “We’ll wait and see how he goes overnight with the ice pack on it and compressed.
“If it doesn’t look any better we’ll try and get him a scan tomorrow morning. It looks pretty bad.”
The news was far more positive up front however with Smeltz getting through 70-odd minutes on his comeback from a groin injury.
“I wanted to make sure we got the best out of him and got the fitness out of him,” explained Ferguson on his decision to substitute his star striker.
“It was a hard (decision) to take (him) off because he’s always dangerous. He can make things out of nothing.”
“But rather than lose him for five or six weeks we decided enough was enough. He’s proven that he’s fit and he’s proven that he has come back well and coming up we’ve got three games in 10 days or so, so it was wise to bring him off.”
