Changes likely after shock Glory defeat

Coach Ian Ferguson has forecast changes after Perth Glory failed to break down a 10-man Western Sydney Wanderers.

The visitors took the lead in the 15th minute of Sunday’s A-League clash in Western Australia when Lacopo La Rocca headed home a cross from the right.

But Western Sydney had their backs against the wall when Youssouf Hersi was shown a red card in the 38th minute for kicking out at Scott Jamieson after the Glory left back tackled him from behind.

Ferguson said the team lacked the ‘X-factor’ to score.

“We had our chances, we just didn’t take them,” Ferguson said.

“We worked on getting down the side, we definitely worked on down the sides and probably a little bit more inside as well.

“We just sort of struggled a little bit to find that sort of cutting edge or that little bit of maybe X-factor that could split the defence open.”

Perth dominated the second half but failed to break the deadlock despite their 13 shots to Western Sydney’s one.

Ferguson was pleased with the chances the team created and how many balls they put into Sydney’s box, but that the team lacked determination.

“We need to be more ruthless and we need people to have that hunger and desire to go and attack (the ball),” he said.

“It might hurt a little bit, but we’ve got to get in there and try and get that goal and at this moment of time I just don’t see it.”

“No excuses, but to me it’s three points lost.”

Western Sydney coach Tony Popovic labelled the refereeing as ‘poor’.

While Popovic did not have an issue with the red card shown to Hersi, he believed other decisions across the afternoon by referee Kris Griffiths-Jones were unsatisfactory.

“Look I haven’t seen it clearly, if there was retaliation then it’s a send off,” Popovic said of Hersi’s red card.

“I thought overall the officiating was very poor.

“Take that incident aside, but in the end it shouldn’t be about them it should be about a fantastic performance from Western Sydney.

“I just thought overall (Griffiths-Jones) had a poor game, very poor game and it would have been (an) injustice if we didn’t get the points in the end due to some poor decisions.”

Popovic was full of praise for his side.

“Full credit to the players, they stuck in there, they kept their discipline,” Popovic said.

“At times it was testing, tough conditions against a team that really came out hard in the second half and put us under a lot of pressure and we held firm.

“Every performance we’ve had so far this year has been a good performance.

“We haven’t got the results we’ve deserved, this was a great performance not so much in terms of our great football, but this was more about character.”