Ferguson wants Glory to get physical

Perth Glory coach Ian Ferguson has called on his players to take a physical approach when they meet the Newcastle Jets on Saturday.

Having taken maximum points in just one of their last nine matches, the Glory have slumped from second on the A-League table to seventh ahead of their trip to the Hunter Valley for Saturday’s clash with the equally out-of-form Jets.

Ferguson’s side will be missing injured striker Shane Smeltz (groin) and suspended defender Josh Mitchell, but the coach expects the Glory to overcome the losses through physical pressure – an approach Perth has been working on since last Friday’s 3-1 loss to league leaders Central Coast.

“We’ve got to go out there and make sure we’re in people’s faces now,” Ferguson said ahead of the team’s departure from Perth on Friday.

“I feel as though we’ve not been doing that for the last four or five weeks and that’s what we worked on very hard (at training).”

“(We’ve worked on) a high press and keeping our shape and our structure to make sure that teams are not getting the time that we’ve been given them to play football.”

“We’ve been giving people running off us too much time on the ball (so they) make telling passes that are hurting us at this moment in time.”

“We want to make sure, now, that we’re putting teams on the back foot.”

Ferguson said former Gold Coast United hard man Steve Pantelidis would take Mitchell’s position in central defence, while youngster Adam Taggart was a chance to make his first-team debut to replace Smeltz.

Former Melbourne Victory left-back Evan Berger has also been included in the travelling party.

Ferguson said he still felt Mitchell’s dismissal against Central Coast in the 26th was not worth a red card.

The defender’s sliding tackle made contact with the ball before his follow through took his leg into the shin of Mariners midfielder Oliver Bozanic.

Ferguson said, however, it had not been worth appealing the mandatory one-match suspension for a send-off.

“As a club we sat down and we had a look at it with the CEO and we just felt that you’ve got to be 100 percent sure,” Ferguson said.

“If you’re not 100 percent sure – and in my opinion again, I don’t think it was a sending off, I think the worst was a booking but I don’t think it was a sending off – if you appeal it and they over-turn it, it means you get punished for another match.”

“I’ve no centre halves at this moment in time,” he said, referring to long-term injuries to Chris Coyne and Scott Neville. “So I couldn’t take that gamble.”