Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson says his side is desperate to get away from the ‘horrible and gut-wrenching’ feeling of being bottom of the league when they meet Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday
Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson says his side is desperate to get away from the ‘horrible and gut-wrenching’ feeling of being bottom of the league when they meet Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday.
The Glory fell to last place after North Queensland Fury beat Sydney FC 1-0 on Wednesday, and Ferguson said it was tough for his team to handle.
“This team and this club is too good to be sitting where they are,” Ferguson said.
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“It’s not nice, we have to go out there and get a win to get us off there.”
“I’ve been there with North Queensland Fury for 90 percent of last year and it’s a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling being at the bottom of the league, so I’m sure these boys feel the same and I want to get away from it.”
But Ferguson said the Glory’s two wins over the Victory this year, a 2-0 triumph on the road in Round 2 and a 3-1 home victory in mid-November, has added to their belief for this game.
“(Melbourne’s) movement is great, they’ve got good players all over the park. They’ve got a great spine, so they’re going to cause us problems all over,” Ferguson said.
“But we’ve beaten them twice this season, so let’s be confident, let’s go out there and try to take the game to them.”
The Glory coach said he was likely to play a similar team to the one that drew 1-1 with Central Coast last week, despite the return of Jacob Burns and Todd Howarth from injury and Mile Sterjovski and Brent Griffiths from suspension.
“The boys did well last week. They deserved the three points and did a great job, so I might keep the same team … it’s going to be difficult to change them,” he said.
Young defender Scott Neville, who was forced off during the Mariners clash, will also be available.
“He had palpitations in the heart so we didn’t take any risks. He actually felt it was heartburn at the beginning but as time got on he could hardly breathe and his heart was racing,” Ferguson said.
“He went through a lot of tests, we wanted to make sure that everything was fine, but he’s come through everything so it has turned out okay.”
